“As long as you’re having fun, that’s the key. The moment it becomes a grind, it’s over.”

— Barry Gibb

Silly isn’t stupid. In fact, humor requires intelligence. Humor used to defuse a tense situation is a highly evolved skill. Individuals who can take their job seriously but lighten up on life can carry themselves and others through life’s challenges. In doing so, they make the journey colorful and memorable, sharing laughter along the way.

• Barbara Ashkin of Cxtec, Syracuse NY, added humor to their phone answering menu that said, “Press 4 to hear the lion roar, Press 5 to hear a funny joke, in addition to the expected entries. Customers appreciate the humor and realize that this is a different kind of company.
• When Bob Vaughn retired from Lakeland Community College as dean of business, virtually no one realized he sang and played the piano. During his formal retirement presentation, Bob asked the stage manager to pull back the curtain, revealing a piano and a microphone. He then performed five parodies he’d written about roof repair, interminable meetings, and the National Education Association. People loved it and recalled his presentation years after his retirement.
• Social scientists have been studying humor in the work place for decades. In Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, authors Terry Deal and Allan A. Kennedy say that organizational humor is a form of play, bonding employees, reducing conflicts, and creating and strengthening cultural values.
• “The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living… humor, more than anything else…can afford…an ability to rise above any situation, if only for a few seconds.” Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning.
• There is a silver lining in every cloud. How hard are you prepared to look for it? People generally want to be around someone who is fun and optimistic rather than those who preach doom and gloom.
• Be the person who can find fun and humor in every situation. Always be ready to laugh, especially at yourself.

“Humor is an affirmation of dignity, a declaration of man’s superiority to all that befalls him.”

— Romain Gary

Leslie