Humor at Work
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It’s often said that laughter is the best medicine. But, not only is humor good for our health, it can also be a valuable workplace tool. Because humor has an uplifting effect on people, organizations can benefit by using it to create a positive and more productive workplace.
It’s the levity that humor generates which makes it important for work atmospheres because it has the power to make people feel more optimistic and open. This open attitude, when maximized, encourages better learning, communication, morale and teamwork.
On the other hand however, something as ostensibly positive as humor can have its pitfalls if organizations don’t make a conscious effort to direct it properly. This means ensuring that the organization’s sense of humor fuels an environment that brings out the best in people as opposed to the worst.
Like most things in life humor has a flipside. Because as much as teams and businesses thrive when employees feel “happy,” the wrong kind of humor can destroy morale and poison the environment, which ultimately and undoubtedly will taint business results. And, since humor is often a matter of subjective interpretation, successful organizations will need to exploit the positive effect that humor has to offer while always keeping a watchful eye on its dark side.
So the question then becomes, “How do we create healthy work environments where humor works for, and not against us?”
Well, before doing anything else, we must understand the relationship that humor has to an organization’s culture and the subsequent effect it can have on its business performance. Since a company’s culture is its personality, the humor belonging to it should reflect its sensibilities the same way an individual’s sense of humor reflects his/her personality. The idea though is to find a way to use humor in organizations that reinforces behaviors that propel the positives and the not negatives in people.
10 Ways to Get Humor Working For You
1. Humor is in the eye of the beholder. Set boundaries of what is appropriate and what is not, because what some people find humorous, others will find offensive. Parameters of acceptable behaviors can be in the form of official written policies as well as through verbal communications and role modeling.
2. Keep it clean and kind. Humor should never hurt or embarrass any individual or group of individuals. If people are made to feel self conscious or ashamed, the effects will be costly to productivity, morale and may even extend into the marketplace where a company’s brand and reputation can be irreparably damaged.
3. Make it fun. Humor at work is part attitude, part action. Use humor as a way to create an inclusive environment. Not only do you want to benefit from humor and the energy it creates, you also want to be able to see the world of humor through the eyes of others as well as your own.
4. Assign employees to be in charge of fun. Humor can be inserted into everyday business activities. One possibility is to assign a different person to bring a funny clip from a paper, magazine or internet page to the weekly (or monthly, or annual, etc…) staff meeting. Or, you could also do something like asking employees to volunteer for a joke-writing contest.
5. Allocate time. Carve out time to schedule events where humor plays a role. This can mean finishing early one day each month, or week to do something that will make people laugh and/or enjoy themselves.
6. Make it a priority. When planning or setting objectives, think about the underlying tone and look for the existence of humor. If it’s not there, add it. For example, say the development of a presentation is underway. If upon examination, you realize it’s is too dry and serious, spice it up with a humorous slide or activity.
7. Find what’s funny in everyday life. Spontaneous humor is as important, and possibly even more therapeutic, than formal efforts to incorporate it into people’s work lives. One of the best ways to start is to find opportunities to laugh at yourself. This does not mean doing so critically or with judgment, but rather in a way that makes you and others smile.
8. Balance responsibility. Organizations and individuals need to be equally accountable for making right versus wrong choices. Behaviors are shaped and organizational behavior is no exception. Individuals need to know what they will face if they “misbehave” and leadership needs to set an example by behaving how they want and expect others to.
9. Nip it in the bud. Discriminatory jokes should be met with immediate reprimand. If allowed, ill-intended humor and its effects will spread through an organization like cancer and imbue it with a dark cloud. Plus, the last thing any company needs is to be accused of harassment and faced with a costly lawsuit.
10. Measure success. Look for laughs. If people are smiling and laughing, they are enjoying themselves, and you have proof that humor is working for you in your workplace.
Overall, the best approach a company can have is to appreciate what humor can bring to a business and the people in it while at the same time maintaining a healthy respect and sensitivity for its power to hurt or heal. Happy people make a happy workplace and a happy workplace produces positive results.
Humor at Work - To learn more about this author, visit Donna Flagg's Website.
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