Hack:
The good humor company

Hi Salvatore

An interesting model and approach. This is something I have also seen and experienced within organisations. I would suggest, however, that within the organisational context that good humor cannot just be instituted as per Kjerful's suggestion with the role of the Chief Happiness officer and is most successful when organically developed guided by virues, mission, vision, leadership style, recruitment, selection and OD planning within the organisation..

Regards

Rich

Thanks for this post Salvatore, what I find intriguing about humor at work as you detailed it here - is that it leads to innovation whereas the stone faced models rarely do:-)

When I taught at McGill University, and worked with Inuit in the most Northern communities on Baffin Island, we laughed a lot when my English smacked up against their Inuktitut in ways that neither language made sense. Laughter crosses over words, melds ages, bridges beliefs, and draws the best from brains, often separated by barriers few can cross well.

Laughter’s also the best balancing elixir of the human brain, and yet still tops the missing-medicine-list in most workplaces. Would you agree that humor’s especially effective when people laugh at themselves, in ways that lift morale, reduce tension or communicate differences in side-splitting style?
The man behind the hilarious memes, Ben Huh, gets 170 million visits to his online site daily because it gives 5 minutes of laughter a day. Not surprisingly, participants consistently rank humorous speakers as most effective, and humorous peers as favorite. It’s also true that, while research shows how lectures tend to work against human brains, at the same time, humor open minds to learn and retain more.
How though Salvatore, would you ensure the humor works for all? Unfortunately, some still wield humor to diminish people who differ, yet self-deprecating humor often attracts unity from differences. At its best, humor disarms people from attacking ideas presented, so that comments and questions pop up to replace circular counter arguments that that fail to find conclusions.
Would you agree that people jump on board even more when they hear how the experts recommend humor to release endorphins, trigger health, increase relaxation, and alter brain chemicals in the direction of winning. How so?
1. Release endorphins into the brain so that pain can be reduced, and people appear happily distracted from difficult situations.
2. Trigger health by stimulating the immune system and connecting mind and body exchanges in positive and healthier ways.
3. Increase relaxation through added oxygen to the brain, better air exchange and fuel for deeper thought or learning.
4. Alter chemicals within the brain, in ways that reduce stress, lift emotions and contribute to and sustains a sense of well being.
Great stuff and thanks!

Interesting work, Salvatore. You selected models people admire and trust - which helps to move the model forward.I enjoyed and concur with your expanded definition of humor and wonder why we have so little in workplaces where we could benefit from more?

Humor, that all can enjoy also appears to suggest that good tone exists. For instance, folks would rarely assign negative values to others' ideas in a discourse, nor would they use meta-messages to say one thing sarcastically which really means another more negative thing. So humor would both help to create a healthy work climate and also sustain it - I think. Agree?

Salvatore -

Thank you for the hack. I've actually seen this exact approach in use in a company I described in another story I posted here:

http://www.managementexchange.com/story/all-play-and-no-work

They made their work environment so fun that every employee felt like a stand-up comedian.
In general, I've also seen this dynamic in a lot of technology companies. Young, bright software engineers like to work in a fun environment where they can pull practical jokes on people and blend work and fun.

Hello Salvatore,

Reminded me of the days I kept off my boss cause he was in a bad humor. And I see this repeated within the family as well. There are days I am simply not inclined to discuss budgets. In other words humor is a by-product of deep forces. I am sure the effort to keep good humor will smoothen interactions but to work on humor independent of events does seem a bit like the tail wagging the dog.

I have read the other comments here and they make me feel the odd one out. But, even if I take individual humor as an unexplored source of energy, my question is will it be sufficient to provide the energy needs of a growing enterprise? In particular, as we are snowed by interactions will our ability to laugh help us? One hack I read has reported the growing incidence of rage in the workplace. Humor will address the symptom but not the cause.

I hope I have not misunderstood your hack.

Regards,

Dhiraj

Hola Salvatore,

I'm a O/D doctoral student, I'm very passionate about the theme of humor. I really believe that if people do what they love (strengths) in a climate where the humor and respect are one of the most important values they could be happy and healthy. I'm convinced that humor can do the difference and that it is an excellent tool to explore. Obviously, in Management it's not that easy, we can't depend only on this tool, we have to compliment with other resources and strategies, but it's definitively important to develop models, theories and more studies to help us demonstrate it's power.

Dear Salvatore,

I saw your interview on youtube a month ago and I'm surprised to discover that you are the same person I saw on the video, since then I've been interested in what you bring to this field of humor at the workplace. I would love if you could send me the entire article where you explain the model, because I'm conducting a research about the value of humor at work and it would be very useful.

Regards
Suannette