Laughter in the workplace

Laughter is one thing that struck me about the innovative workplaces I encountered. I don’t know whether it’s a truly universal characteristic, but it certainly is pervasive. Of course, I also saw periods of intense concentration and moments of dismay and alarm.

But laughter was never far away. It could not be suppressed for long. It would break out in quips and cracks, a bond between those joined together in pursuing something worthwhile. Sometimes it was dark humor, even gallows humor in the face of impending disaster, but the laughter was always close to the surface, ready to explode at any moment.

If you’re not hearing laughter, it’s a sign you’re still in the land of 20th Century management. The laughter of the new management is not laughter at the misfortunes of others or at those who have offended a powerful patron. The laughter is laughter with others—those with whom we have discovered that the end it seemed we were coming to has unexpectedly opened up. New possibilities are now obvious.

By contrast, my encounters with traditional management were always deadly serious. Jokes about the hierarchy were not tolerated. That’s because laughing at the hierarchy puts the power structure in question. In traditional management, the power structure is no laughing matter.

In radical management, jokes about the hierarchy are possible. People are doing what they are doing because they believe in it, not because of the power structure.

Once you understand how management is being reinvented and the idea of delighting clients, many of the practices of traditional bureaucracy appear comical or pointless. There is an acute danger that you will pause and see no reason to continue them.

Mark Zwilling has an interesting post to the effect that laughter is a characteristic of innovative people.

To learn how to create workplaces that are productive, innovative and filled with laughter, read The Leader's Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century

Comments

[Deb Mills-Scofield]

One of my most wonderful clients is a great example of laughter - we smile a lot, laugh a lot, jest - and the guy that runs the place we have off-site meetings comments all the time how whenever the Menasha folks come in, it's always happy, everyone smiles and he hears laughter - what a joy - can't directly related amount of laughter to amount of innovation, but sure seems like a link! Here's link - http://ht.ly/3jym1

[Graeme Roberts]

I completely agree. Toxic organizations never laugh. Mediocrity is inversely proportional to sense of humor squared.

[Connie Williams]

There are strong connections between humor and creativity that have been supported by many academic studies since the 50's. At Synectics, we speak about creativity as a function of both the climate and thinking of an organization, while innovation adds a commitment to action, so fun, laughter and humor all contribute to more powerful innovation results. One of the most interesting connections is that both humor and creativity (and innovation) have surprise in them -- so the ha ha leads to the Aha! I totally agree that the more fun, the more laughter you see, the more likely the organization is to be innovative. It's undeniable!

[Shop Hermes Kelly]

let's join our hands together to stop this kind of wrong doings. It may risk lives in the future if we just let them continue.