You’ve got minutes until March Madness starts again this morning…do you know what your employees are doing? I can tell you–they’re setting up their live streams, poring over their brackets, and sweating out the minutes until their alma mater takes the court. What your employees probably are NOT doing however, is putting their full, absolute concentration toward their work.

And you know what…that is OK. Here’s what this article is NOT going to tell you: how to raise your office’s productivity in the wake of March Madness.

March Madness, if you are one of the few in the U.S. and abroad who aren’t familiar with it, is the annual college basketball tournament that tens of millions of people watch, according to Nielsen ratings. The tournament draws millions more online (52 million to be exact!). So with all this viewership, what’s the fallout? It comes in the form of distraction, lack of concentration, and delayed follow-through on certain aspects of work.

March Madness and productivity has been widely studied:

  • Investor’s Business Daily estimates productivity losses in the U.S. to equal $192 million!
  • Crain’s Chicago Business estimates that 46 percent of workers have participated in office pools.
  • The Miami Herald reports that over $2.5 billion (that’s billion with a B!) is spent on office pools alone each year.

What does that mean for your workplace? For big projects and initiatives that need to get done? For workplace productivity? And how can you combat this steamroller of distraction?

Don’t combat it–embrace it! The short-term losses in productivity will be more than made up in the long term if you foster an atmosphere of fun, competition, and collaboration.

I’m certainly not advocating that you should encourage employees to slack off or that you shouldn’t continue to push your employees to be highly productive. But this is a clear instance of when an organization can look at the culture of its workplace and bring employees together in a unique way.

During this week, take a page from the employee engagement book instead of the productivity book; you might be surprised at how productive engaged employees can be. Here are a few examples of what some offices are doing, and how these activities can make a big difference in the energy level of your organization:

  • Lunch viewing party and potluck. Embrace the fact that many of your employees love basketball. By making it a lunch party, you make it about every employee.
  • Integrate March Madness with your products. Chances are, you can get your clients or employees thinking about your company differently by putting a fun spin on your products and solutions.
  • Office pool with a designated prize. It doesn’t take a lot of money, but the bragging rights alone are worth a lot.
  • Worldwide online pool with clients, friends of the company, and colleagues. Some may not care about U.S. college basketball, but they will love being a part of a global phenomenon.

Have fun with March Madness and know that productivity can’t always be measured in clear ways. Engaging employees in new ways will pay off in the long run.

Make it a great day!