I have always wondered what it would be like in a workplace where they produce comedy shows such as Saturday Night Live. I imagine a fun-filled and lively ambience with laughter all around, all the time. Maybe it is not all that rosy, nonetheless I would like to ask how is it in your workplace? When you meet one on one do people genuinely smile, say hello, and maybe even crack a joke? Are the lunch breaks filled with laughter? Are people in superb spirits in meetings, feeling jolly, and in great cheer? If it is, please leave a note in the comments section, I think a lot of the readers of this article would love to move to your organization, if possible. But better than that would be if we can bring such a culture into our workplaces.
There are so many recruiting ads that say they are a fun organization to work for, I wonder what fun means. Maybe when someone recruits us, we should ask them to show us the fun they talked about in the ad. They may give you the appearance of a theme park with roller-coasters, only to find out later that it was a metaphor for the kind of ride you will have there. If I were to guess, most work places are not a lot of fun. Otherwise, as Sunday comes to an end, why does dread fill the air? Instead, most people should be welcoming the work week, right? Nonetheless, some of you may be wondering, why should it be humorous at work? It just needs to be fulfilling, meaningful and impactful. Agreed, but a bridge to get there is to create humor in the workplace.
Think about a time when you were in a meeting with several people. In my experience, such situations seriously lack humor, and have a lot of tension in the air. It would help immensely by lightening it up. Is humor taking time away from the important stuff (especially when the agenda is long)? Possibly, but it is well worth it because there is better chance to get the creative juices flowing, thus possibly avoiding a follow-on meeting! A meeting with peers is usually quite humorous, and because there are peers the tension is generally low. But when there are several levels of people, some supervisors of others, the humor level is low and the tension level is high. There is a need for some humor and it is the responsibility of the higher ranked folks to provide it.
I recommend reading the article “Leading with Humor” by Alison Beard that appeared a few years ago in Harvard Business Review (click here). There are tremendous benefits, such as getting people to pay attention and even people coming on time to meetings. If you asked me, my favorite days in the classroom are the ones I cracked jokes in. But more often than not, I am guilty of just going through an entire class without saying anything funny. Those are my worst class days. Also those are the days students are just tuned-out, they keep asking about the same thing, and I have to repeat the things I said before. Instead, if I had their attention in the first place, it would have helped a little (of course, some teaching skills would have helped too!).
Although all of us like jokes (especially when said in good taste), some of us are not so sure about being funny. We feel we are not natural story tellers, or we are unable to think on our feet, or we just cannot remember a joke when we need it. That is absolutely understandable. It is important to note that humor comes in different forms and we need to look inwards to see the kind of humor we would feel comfortable with. However, if you feel you have not shown humor in a while and you need to work on adding humor to your work, what do you do? Here are some thoughts on things one can do. Yes, they do sound like food for thought (literally!).
Humor as a topping
Unless we are in the comedy-writing business, we typically would not create our content around our jokes. Whether it is an article or a speech, first prepare the main story. Then add humor. Think of it like making a cake or an ice cream. You first make the main part and then throw in the icing or the toppings. But the jokes are certainly the metaphorical “icing on the cake”. One way to do that is to add some comic strips to power-point slides (be sure to give credit to the creator). It would help if the comic strip is relevant to the topic, but do not sweat too much about it. Any joke flies. I would be careful with Dilbert as someone might take it personally.
Consume an appetizer
I would recommend starting your day listening to or watching funny materials. These could be laugh-out-loud shows, stand-up comedies, sitcoms, or humorous podcasts (my favorites are Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, No Such Thing as a Fish, and Ask Me Another). However, consuming comedy is not only an appetizer, it will also give you ideas for your meetings. In addition, you will notice when others are being funny. It creates a positive spiral. So even if you are not the one telling the jokes, you will be in a frame of mind to laugh for sure. As an aside, watch and take notes of what you feel you can emulate, those you skills you can work on. All of us have a funny bone, just find yours.
Treat it like a buffet
While I do not recommend pigging out or hogging the food, there is a good way to eat at a buffet. Put some on the plate, go to your table, and eat. Then go back for a fresh plate. Keep doing this till you are satisfied. Same with creating humor. Do not do it all in one sitting. You get some ideas, put it down and take a break. Go do some other activity. Sometimes taking a shower or any other type of quiet time might spark some ideas. Then go back, get your thoughts together, and jot it down. Keep doing this till you are satisfied! The key idea is to take those strategic breaks, just like you should in a buffet.