Corporate Training Magazine

Humor in the Workplace
Vol 3 Issue 1 - Jan 2007

By Jocelyn Barrows

Who says work has to be serious business? Certainly not Hunter Adams.

Portrayed by Robin Williams in the 1998 movie,, Dr. Hunter "Patch" Adams challenged the medical establishment with his belief in the healing power of laughter. His driving belief is that laughter, joy and creativity play an integral part of the healing process and that these aspects are required components of true health care.

In 1972, Dr. Adams founded the Gesundheit Institute in Arlington, Virginia, as a means to integrate a traditional hospital with alternative medicine, using humor as a key technique in treating illness. He continues his work as a social activist to reshape society's mindset on health and well-being.

And while Dr. Adams' focus is on the physical and mental well-being of individuals, these same principles easily translate to the business environment.

Dan Gascon, author of Humor for your Health, explained, "The most important element for your happiness is that your vocation provides an environment that allows for humor to flow within it. Humor and laughter within your vocation is not just 'a good idea'; it's an extremely effective, proactive management strategy that creates a terrific learning environment and makes for good business."

Reduce Stress
Working is often associated with too much stress, and that can be the main cause of illness, absenteeism and burn-out. Humor is a great stress reliever because it lightens your load and makes you feel good. You can't feel good and feel stress simultaneously, because the moment we experience humor, feelings like depression, anger and anxiety dissolve.

Laughter also reduces stress by activating physiological systems, including the muscular, respiratory and cardiovascular. You physically feel better when you laugh, and after laughter you feel lighter and more relaxed.

Prevent Burn-Out
Humor acts as a psychological stress reducer to snap you out of negative thinking and lead you back to increased creativity. A few moments of humor at work can lead to increased productivity and learning as you become newly energized.

Relieve Boredom
Humor wakes you up and increases your attention. Some of the most memorable lecturers, speakers and trainers use jokes, stories and anecdotes to command attention and motivate their audience.

Boost Morale
Interacting enjoyably with your fellow co-workers reduces the need for social support outside the workplace by calling home, goofing off with friends or staying away from work.

Increase Productiveness
Being able to laugh on the job goes hand in hand with the ability to operate at peak efficiency.

Improve Communication Skills
Humor provides a non-threatening medium through which the employee and employer can communicate with others without intensifying the emotional temperature of the relationship. This opens up the lines of communication that bring people together and assists in problem solving.

Build Relationships
In environments where humor is supported, an actual team culture is created that will use humor, jokes, comedy and laughter to reduce stress and provide perspective for the entire team. You have heard humor directed at groups such as lawyers, waiters, medical personnel, athletes, scientists, government workers, engineers, businesspersons and educators. Learning to laugh at yourself and what you do lightens the load and brings us closer.

Facilitate Change
Humor is a perfect mechanism for dealing with constant change. It makes you more fluid and flexible, and less rigid and fearful of learning or accepting new things, ideas or procedures.

Developing a sense of humor isn't about 'being funny', it's about appreciating the value of humor and applying its positive qualities. This will increase your ability to adapt and understand all the new people, places and ideas that your vocation will present. Perhaps most importantly, humor will enhance your communication skills and strengthen your persuasive abilities.

Encourage Excellence
Feeling good about your work and yourself will encourage you to take better care of yourself. You will use fewer sick days and health insurance benefits as you become more aware of physical and emotional wellness.

Humor and laughter at work makes you feel more secure and minimizes your desire to work or study elsewhere because you feel appreciated, more like family than an employee. You become more willing to do your best work, which translates into increased performance.

Science, research and empirical evidence all back this up. Studies have continually shown that not only can the benefits of humor be witnessed in the workplace, they can also be quantified.

Thomas Wright, professor of organizational behavior at the University of Nevada, has conducted extensive surveys on the role humor plays in the workplace. His research has revealed that people who keep their sense of humor--particularly in the face of change--respond and perform better on the job. These individuals foster better relationships with clients and associates, demonstrate more creativity as problem-solvers, and are more productive than their more serious counterparts.

Measuring Your HQ
How can you identify these people? A person's propensity to react positively in the face of events can be measured by identifying their Humor Quotient.

Similar to IQ and EQ, it's also possible to measure a person's natural tendencies when responding to events and stressors by examining their propensity for using humor to their advantage. A person's Humor Quotient (HQ) identifies how well an individual will respond in the face of common and not-so-common challenges. People with a low HQ tend to get bogged down in the negative, while those with a high HQ exhibit a propensity to rise above it.

Having a high HQ doesn't mean that a person goes around continually cracking jokes. Rather, it shows how well they make use of humor as a tool in dealing with situations. Indeed, some of the most successful people in business carry their sense of humor, whether to diffuse tense situations or to knock down walls and break down barriers to build new relationships and opportunities. Three skills common to high HQ people are strong rapport, respectful boundaries and the ability to handle their inner critic.

Rapport refers to how well you connect with others based on reading their HQ. Tied closely to this is the ability to respect the boundaries of humor with others. Recognizing limits and levels of tolerance and appropriateness gives you the insight on when and how not to go 'too far'. Finally, the ultimate check on your ability to use humor is in finding the positive intention that your critical voice represents and then using it to your advantage.

The important thing is to show that you have a sense of humor and you're not afraid to use it. Let your unique sense of humor give you access to the things that are most important at work and in life: pure enjoyment, a sense of meaning, ease and relaxation.

Putting Humor to Work for You
International business speaker, humorist, trainer and author Michael Kerr outlined steps that companies can follow to put humor to work in their organizations.

Lighten Up Your Physical Environment
Research shows that gerbils lose brain cells when kept in stark, gray, cubicle-like environments, whereas gerbils that are provided with lots of colorful and creative stimuli actually grow more brain cells. Can the same be said for humans?

Train for Humor and Add Humor to Your Training
If you truly value humor, take is seriously enough to offer training in it for everyone. And remember to use ample doses of humor in all training sessions -- humor can boost attendance, encourage participation, make difficult concepts easier to grasp, alleviate anxieties of attendees and improve retention of the material being presented.

Meetings for the Seriously Challenged
The best way to make meetings more bearable is to not have them (just kidding). If you must have meetings, at least try to make them interesting, engaging and worth having. Using humor in meetings can help encourage attendance and participation during the meeting. Humor also helps participants feel more relaxed, facilitates more open communications and can help people to problem-solve or brainstorm more creatively.

And the Winner Is . . .
Find reasons to celebrate -- continually. Celebrate new employees, small milestones, anniversaries and celebrate successes as well as your blunders. Rewarding employees is a simple and creative way to say thanks, show appreciation, keep workplace spirit alive and keep morale and motivation high.

Getting to Know You
Use ample doses of fun and humor to help people to get to know each other, build trust between employees and management, facilitate more open communications and create more cohesive teams.

Stress Busters
Humor is one of the fastest and most effective means of combating stress. In fact, humor in many ways is the complete opposite of stress. It's not easy taking a humor break during times of stress, yet it's during these times that humor is needed the most.

Speaking of Humor
Use humor in presentations to add interest, increase participation, maintain interest, improve retention, build rapport with your audience and reduce your nerves. Remember to practice safe humor only!

Above all, give yourself and each other permission to have fun and permission to play once in a while. Once you do this, the possibilities are endless.