As companies continue to lay off thousands of people, this company found an innovative way to keep the people they care about (all of their employees and families) and prevent families and lives from undo adversity and possible poverty. How did they do it? By setting up what they call “alternative work.” Work that was contracted out is now done by employees. They even have a corporate garden that employees work in and sell.

I will never forget an experience I had several months back. I was asked to provide some consulting and development for a highly dysfunctional senior leadership team. We were discussing some of the morale issues their staff was having when one of the senior leaders said “I don’t think morale and motivating people really matters. Given the way things are people should just be lucky they have a job.”

Each “ant member” has a role to play in the colony (team). And each colony can’t survive very well without its leader (the queen). When teams are formed and even after they have existed for a period of time, it is necessary that each team member understand and be reminded in relation to their role and how they contribute to the team and the organization’s goals.

With a little creative thought maybe we could come up with an inventive way to increase productivity in our own workplace. After all, as this video demonstrates, if you can find a way for people to pick up trash (not even their own trash) in a park, surely we could create ways for employees to become more productive by having fun as well.