A funny thing happened when a behavioural scientist and professor at Stanford University and a corporate strategist got together to teach a course called Humor: Serious Business.
Some of the most ambitious business students in the world learned how to use humour to be better leaders and maybe even better humans.
Dr Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas take the behavioural science and principles of comedy, and apply them to business, leadership and our everyday lives.
They’ve written a book based on their course called Humor, Seriously: Why Humor is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life.
Naomi Bagdonas realised the potential of humour early in her career, she told Jesse Mulligan.
“I was in my mid-20s and I was facilitating a session for a group of senior execs. Most people in the room were 10 to 20 years older than me. And I think there was only one other woman in the room. So, I was sort of this young woman at the front of the room, very little status in the room in that way, and I really had this facade that I had in business, and it worked really well. I was like climbing the corporate ladder, it was going great.
“But I had no humour. And at one point, in the middle of this presentation, one of the senior execs shot at me and made a snide remark like, ‘Hey, can you just cut to the part where you tell me how to make my team do exactly what I want?’ And without thinking I shot back at him. 'That's a great idea, the session that I run on mind control is actually next week, so come back for that one and it's gonna be awesome'.”
Suddenly the room was with her, she says.
“I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I've lost my job. What did I just do?' And instead, the exact opposite happened, the room erupted in laughter - again this is a reminder that the bar is extremely low in business.
“And this guy who was totally not on my side, all of a sudden was my biggest ally.”
Students on their course learn about levity rather than spinning gags, Jennifer Aaker says
Photo: supplied
“When you use that mindset of levity, you often can tackle even more significant challenges in ways that cultivate trust with others and in fact, make the opportunity to achieve goals that we have, you know, even easier.”
When you laugh, a cocktail of useful chemicals are released in the brain, Aaker says.
“Dopamine is released, which is the same hormone released during certain types of physical touch. You also have cortisol, that's reduced, and so you feel actually calmer.
“Endorphins are released as well. So, it's kind of like the feeling of a runner's high. So, in essence, you have this cocktail of hormones that increase that feeling of a runner's high, and then also decrease stress, kind of like meditation, and then also, increase this dopamine similar to having sex.
“So, it's that alchemy and those three things that help to shift the way that we process information, the way we bond with each other, the trust we have for each other, not to mention the fun we have with each other.”
Laughter or humour doesn’t just change how we feel and behave, but it also changes how other people feel about us and how they behave towards us, Bagdonas says.
“Leaders with a good sense of humour are seen as 27 percent more motivating, their teams are more creative, they're more likely to report being engaged at work.
“And so, there's this incredible world of impact that just having a bit more laughter and levity at work in our lives has.”
