Humour at Work

Using Humour Intelligence to Work Smarter

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For many people nowadays, working harder is not an option. They cannot commit any more hours; they do not have any more energy to give. So, to be more productive, we have to find ways to work that are not harder - but smarter. Many businesses have never considered humour as a productivity tool; but smart businesses are finding that clever application of humour at work can increase engagement and creativity as well as decreasing absenteeism.

Researchers have identified four theories of humour - and each of these can be used in business.

Play Theory

This is our most primitive form of humour and can even be seen in other primates like chimpanzees and apes. It often takes the form of mock aggression (chasing, wrestling, biting and tickling) and is accompanied by laughter. One of the earliest ways that parents generate fun and laughter with their children is by chasing and tickling them.

All work involves boring - or, at least, less interesting - tasks. Some managers think, "They're being paid. It's part of their job. They should just get on with it." Smart managers see the bring tasks as an opportunity to improve engagement.

If the boring task is done alone, could it be done with a colleague? Could you have some play element added - a game or contest? Is it possible to add music without disturbing hers? Humans working together will always generate more fun. People are thirty times more likely to laugh with someone else than alone.

Relief Theory

Relief theory says that laughter is an automatic reaction to reduce psychological tension. Humour helps relieve the tension caused by one's fears and the result of this release of nervous energy is laughter. This is one of the reasons why you laugh at the end of a scary ride in an amusement park - relief that you didn't die!

At work, we laugh in relief when we make that critical deadline in a nick of time. The workplace is full of near-misses - many of which will generate relief humour. Re-telling these stories can be really useful because as well as generating humour, they also help staff remember the lessons from the near miss to make sure it never happens again.

Superiority Humour

The Superiority Theory of humour traces back to Plato and Aristotle. The general idea is that a person laughs about misfortunes of others (so called schadenfreude), because these misfortunes assert the person's superiority and the shortcomings of others.

Every year, much humour is generated by the Darwin Awards which are generally given to those who have killed themselves in the stupidest way over the previous year. We laugh at their death! In that scary ride, you might laugh at how scared the person next to you was.

In business, we use superiority humour all the time in relation to our competitors. In organisations, you will often see it between departments. This is why inter-departmental challenges often get great engagement. One organisation used it in reverse in a campaign to tidy up the office. Each week they awarded a Messiest Desk award that had to be placed on the winner's computer monitor.

Incongruity Humour

Often called the incongruity-resolution theory, this is the most popular theory of why we find jokes funny. It revolves around the concept of 'incongruity'; the idea that we laugh at things that surprise us because they seem out of place. It's funny when clowns wear outrageously large shoes, people have especially big noses or silly looking spectacles. The incongruity of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dressed as Mario added memorable humour to the Olympic closing ceremony.

Incongruity humour can be the most difficult to use externally in business. Sometimes a quirky subject title will get them to open an email they might normally ignore; but incongruity humour can run the risk of giving a mixed message to a customer.

Internally, however, incongruity humour can be used much more freely. Hold a karaoke contest and watch the normally reserved office manager belt out the lead on 'I want to rock and roll all night long'. Think of how often incongruity humour is generated between you and your colleagues when a bizarre request comes in from higher management or a client - "Can you believe what they've asked for?" you say while laughing.

Introducing more humour into the workplace is much easier than most managers realise. They think they have to introduce the humour; whereas staff are eager and willing to create the fun. What they need is and some (very clear) guidelines about what is not permissible (offensive, tasteless, timeliness, etc), encouragement to do so and an environment that makes it possible.

Kevin is an experienced conference speaker, workshop leader, facilitator and MC. He has twenty-five years experience as a corporate trainer and fifteen years experience as a professional speaker.

He works from Brisbane, Australia, speaking at conferences and seminars across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and in the UK specialising in the areas of sales, customer service, humour in business and communication skills. His clients include some of Australia's largest organisations, politicians, members of the judiciary, Olympic athletes and elite sports people.

He has co-authored nine books on communication skills and humour in business that are used extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the UK and South Africa. He writes regular columns on communication skills, sales & customer service and humour in business for a number of industry magazines. His articles have been printed in major daily newspapers in Australia and Asia.