At some point, business became burdened with a gravitas that borders on funereal. Bestselling Irish novelist, Marian Keyes says: that’s why it’s called work; otherwise it would be called deep-tissue massage!
Yet, the case for using humour as a business tool is compelling. In a 2014 Harvard Business Review article titled ‘Leading with humour’, senior editor Alison Beard wrote that if we make ’em laugh, it “relieves stress and boredom, boosts engagement and well-being, and spurs not only creativity and collaboration but also analytic precision and productivity.”
Humour in business is using humour skillfully and purposefully to connect, engage and inspire any audience. Humour lifts us above the humdrum, which is what so much of business communication is. Humour is a tool that can help you both to stand out in a crowd and to influence positive outcomes. As with any skill, using humour can be taught and learned. To help you on your journey here are our 3 top tips.
It all begins with you
Humour starts with you. You have to manage your state first so other people respond to it. The office grump won’t get anyone to laugh, but a positive, cheerful person will. You have to look like you are enjoying yourself – are you smiling? Are you energetic? Is there a bounce in your step? This is what audiences will respond to. The airline safety briefings warn that you have to have your oxygen mask on first before helping others.
Similarly with humour, you have to be a positive state yourself first. But what if you are having a bad day, or are feeling low? There are some state shifting tools we can all use to help. Tune into music, watch YouTube videos, and listen to your favourite comedy clips to energize yourself before a meeting or presentation.
Curate don’t create
You don’t have to create humour from a scratch (unless you are a professional comedian). Instead curate humour by finding and adapting the best ideas for your own context. The key is to be a keen observer of life. A great idea can come from anywhere, and opportunities for humour present themselves every day.
Erica King, who owns and operates several dental practices in Melbourne, exemplifies this observational skill. In 2007 she was in San Francisco for a marathon and spotted the legend ‘Running Divas’ on a T-shirt. For Erica, the juxtaposition of two such unlikely personas — an athlete and a female opera singer — tickled her sense of humour. She loved it so much, she went on to found the Australian startup Running Divas to help women get into running. All great comedians are keen observers of life. Seinfeld’s technique was simply to milk his everyday observations and put them together.
Channel your inner Boy Scout
Our only guarantee in life, beyond death and taxes, is that things will go wrong — it’s Murphy’s Law. My client Dee tripped on her way onto the stage to deliver a presentation. The audience gasped, but Dee regained her balance and puffed, ‘Things can only get better’, winning a laugh from everyone and even a smattering of applause for her response. It might be hard to think of a humorous quip on the spot. But just like Nigella Lawson the cuisine queen we can use a line we have prepared earlier. For example technology will usually fail at some point. Can you pre prepare a funny line to use should this happen? Everyone will think you are hysterically funny and quick on your feet (and your possibly might be) but what helped was that you were prepared.
Sally Hogshead, author of Fascinate shares this example: ‘The moment I walked on stage for a recent speech, my microphone died. I said: ‘Don’t worry, I’ve been trained in mime . . . And I’ll be delivering the entire speech in interpretive dance.’ By the time the laughter died down, my new mic was ready to go, and the speech went on to a standing ovation!’
That is what mastering humour can do for you: standing ovations, happy people and your message zipping through.