What does “joy in learning” have to do with “joy in work” you might ask?  If you have ever watched a small child engaged in learning and play in preschool or kindergarten, you can appreciate how joy in learning begins.  Some students happily retain that joy of learning throughout their education—but many lose it early.

Fortunately, that joy of learning can be rekindled, and many adults in the workplace; have discovered that their 13 years in public schools and two or more years in college are just the beginning of learning.  Dr. W. Edwards Deming, guru of quality management, wrote in his book The New Economics that we must have a transformation in government, industry and education to encourage joy in learning and joy in work.

“The transformation will release the power of human resource contained in intrinsic motivation.  In place of competition for high rating, high grades, to be Number One, there will be cooperation on problems of common interest between people, divisions, companies, competitors, governments, countries.  The result will in time be greater innovation, applied science, technology, expansion of market, greater service, greater material reward for everyone.  There will be joy in work, joy in learning.  Anyone that enjoys his work is a pleasure to work with.  Everyone will win; no losers.”

Joy in learning and joy in work must go hand in hand in our world today, or we cannot hope to keep up with the new technology, new markets, new services and new jobs our children and grandchildren must be prepared for—many we have never even heard of yet.

So how do we encourage joy in learning and joy in work?  Since we can’t solve all the world’s problems, we need to work at the local level.  In your department, in your division, in your company or organization, how can you create the environment, culture and systems that encourage that joy?

One local businessperson shows joy in learning through the comics.  Jef Mallett, Lansing’s own comic strip author and artist, shares the joy and humor of learning through his comic strip, Frazz, syndicated nationally through United Feature Syndicate. Frazz appears in 150 newspapers, including the Lansing State Journal, Detroit Free Press and several other Michigan papers.

Frazz is about a school custodian and the elementary school where he works. That’s the surface of it, anyway. According to Jef Mallett, it’s really about discovery—not just learning. Learning sounds like a responsibility or an obligation. Discovery sounds like an adventure or an opportunity. Learning, you absorb. Discovery, you roll in.

If there’s that much power to be had by switching from one word to another, think of the potential in switching from words to images, from lessons to stories, from labels to characters.

Mallett describes the title character’s custodian job as just the surface. He reads, he writes, he races. His shelves at home are a pile of everything from Milton to Hiaasen to bike racing rags, discovering ideas and information. He’s an athlete, discovering new limits and breakthroughs. And he’s a songwriter, discovering the value of a day job. In fact, when songwriting started going well, he kept the custodian gig because Bryson Elementary was the perfect environment for—and here it is again—discovery. The real draw, of course, is the students, all energy and interest, given to dancing in a new world that seems to favor marching.

“I don’t know how a comic strip can be about anything but the joy of learning,” Mallett said. “Think of it: It’s my job to tell a brand-new, funny story 365 times a year, for as many years as I can hold the world’s interest. The comic strip itself is all joy and learning. If I don’t learn, I’ve got nothing to write about. And if there’s no joy, no one’s going to read it."

Discovery, learning for learning’s sake, learning with joy, is effective but it’s not efficient. By nature, it’s a matter of taking the long way to where you’re going. Who hasn’t found a more interesting fact when they were looking up another? But the world wants efficiency. Frazz’s third-grade best friend, Caulfield, is brilliant but can’t seem to get on the honor roll or out of detention.

“To me, Caulfield is the hero of the strip,” Mallett said. “Frazz is the voice of reason, the voice of experience and, frequently, the voice of temptation. But Caulfield is the fighter. He won’t give up that joy of learning for the sake of a test score, for quiet approval, for the easy A.”

If a third grader can keep that spark with a lesson plan looming, and a cartoonist from Lansing is able to show that spark with deadlines looming, then we all should take up the challenge.  We must transform the workplace environment, culture and systems so that all of us can dance, learn discover.  And with that there will be joy in learning and joy in work.

		Adrian Bass is director of Capital Quality Initiative (CQI) at Lansing Community College (LCC).  CQI provides learning opportunities in quality management and continuous improvement for individuals and organizations in the area.  He is also marketing director for the Business and Community Institute at LCC.