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Has a sense of humor ever saved your team or meeting from abject failure?
I know mine has.
In the mid-1990s the Phone company sent me to Salt Lake City to facilitate
a team working on a doomed project. We were all staying at Little America
in rooms with red velvet wallpaper. Everyone's families were back in
Denver. We'd all been volunteered by our directors and we were all a
bit peeved about the process.
They gave us a conference room on the ground floor of one of the phone
buildings for the duration of our two-month stay.
I came prepared with a detailed agenda for the first day. We introduced
everyone and I got started. Everyone was tense and cranky about being
pulled out of their jobs and lives. I was cranky about it too, but I
was trying to move us forward. I figured the sooner we got done, the
sooner we could go home.
About 90 minutes into the agenda, one of the team members said: "I
think it's time for a reality 'break'." Now I know he meant reality
'check', but I took his statement as an opportunity. I'd tried every
trick in my playbook to get the team moving, but nothing was working
so I decided what the heck. Let's have fun. It can't get any worse.
So I imagined what it would be like to take a reality 'break' and started
doing some bizarre jazz dance, making weird noises, and generally acting
a bit psychotic.
They all watched in horror.
After about sixty seconds I stopped. And the guy asked me what I was
doing and I said: "You said we need to take a reality 'break',
so I did."
The tension in the room shattered. We spent the next half hour talking
about our frustrations with being volunteered for a doomed project and
then just decided to make the best of it. Everything went smoothly from
there on.
Your Seventh Sense
A sense of humor can unstick the wheels of creativity and productivity.
It can kick start a meeting. It makes friends and influences people.
And, it can occasionally get you into trouble, but not often.
As you know, the hardest part of any change is the soft (i.e., people)
part. And I have found that comedy or humor will soften even the hardest
people when used discreetly at the right moment.
Having discovered the power of humor, I decided to study it more in
depth.
Channeling Robin Williams
Over the last several years I've had the opportunity to study comedians
and humorists speaking about their craft. And, as a master practitioner
of NLP, I've developed highly refined filters for finding the mental
strategies people use to achieve any result, even comedy.
There's one big thing that separates comedians from the rest of us:
the ability to find the funny in any situation, good or bad. After 9/11
it was only a matter of days before Letterman and Leno started doing
Osama jokes.
How do they do it? It's simple. Every comedian I've studied says the
same thing:
1. I take a step back.
2. I ask myself: "What's funny about this?"
3. If I don't get an answer, I ask: "If this were happening to
someone else, would it be funny?
4. If I still don't get an answer, I ask: "What's this like?"
Take a Step Back
What these comedians are describing is what psychiatrists call "dissociation,"
the ability to step out of your body and observe yourself and your environment.
We've all done this; it's just that comedians do it unconsciously. Getting
out of your body allows you to get out of your feelings and become more
objective. This frees the comedian to ask the next three questions.
Think about a recent situation that was somewhat difficult emotionally.
Maybe you got mad or sad about something or someone. Then take a step
back so that you can see yourself in the situation
Three Comedy Questions
- Ask yourself: What's funny about this?
- If it were happening to someone else, would it be funny?
- What's it like?
As my wife and I were finishing our tour of the Maui Aquarium, I took
one last picture of an open pool of fish with my $300 Kodak digital
camera. As I went to turn it off, I pressed too hard on the recessed
power switch and lost my grip on the camera. It started to fall and
I grabbed for it with my right hand. Bobbled it. Then the left and the
right again before I flipped it like a crazed mackerel into the tide
pool.
As I was juggling the camera on its way to a saltwater grave, I realized
that I had taken a step back and asked myself: "What's funny about
this?"
It reminded me of a scene from I Love Lucy with her bobbling something.
As the camera sank, I tried to decide which hand to dive after it.
My non-waterproof watch was on my left hand, so I managed to dive in
with my right.
Brightly colored fish scrambled as the beak of this looming predator
dove into the pool and grabbed the camera off the bottom.
If this were happening to someone else, would it be funny?
Heck yes! By now, I was laughing hysterically.
I held the camera up and let the water drain out of it like one of
those movie cars they've driven into the river and then pulled out with
a crane.
I pulled the memory card and batteries, still laughing.
The retail clerk at an outdoor kiosk nearby said I'd made her day.
There was a time in my life when drowning a $300 camera would have
probably made me swear a blue streak, but instead I took a step back,
asked a couple of simple questions and had a great laugh.
That's the power of humor: to make the bad, better and the funny, hysterical.
How to Think Like A Comedian
Can anyone learn to think like a comedian? Yes you can if you understand
and adopt their mental strategies.
Maybe you need to develop your own sense of humor or you know someone
who needs a sense of humor, either way here's a way to get the guidance
you need.
Over the last year I've worked with Karyn Ruth White, a standup comedian
and professional speaker, to develop a new book called: Your
Seventh Sense - How to Think Like a Comedian. What separates it
from every other book about comedy are all of my discoveries about how
comedians think and insights from a master of the standup stage.
One of the students in our comedy classes called us the Art and Science
of comedy. Karyn's the art and I'm the science.
Order as many copies as you want for $19.95 per copy. Shipping and
handling will be added to each order http://www.qimacros.com/yourseventhsense.html.
If you want a clean (i.e., no 'blue' humor) humorist for your next
conference or meeting, consider Karyn at
www.karynruthwhite.com.
If you'd like a creative comedy workshop for your staff, contact Karyn
at 877- KRWHITE or Jay at 888 468 1537
© 2008 Jay Arthur, the KnowWare® Man, works with companies who want
to plug the leaks in their cash flow and people who want to master the mysteries
of the mind..
To have Jay Arthur to train your staff, contact
Jay at (888) 468-1537, lifestar@rmi.net. 
Order Debug Your Mental Software now:
 Want
to discover your own "motivation profile?" Go to The
Motivation Profile and take the complete profile online FREE. Compare your
results with your spouse, kids, or coworkers to determine where you are most likely
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motivation profile.
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Your Copy of Motivate Everyone, from Amazon.com
Or order Motivate
Everyone now:
Learn how to think like a comedian! Order Your Seventh Sense Now!
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