Humour in Business - It's as easy as baking a cake! by Kevin Ryan

When I was a young child, I remember my mother cooking sponge cakes. We were told we must tip-toe through the kitchen lest some unnecessary thud cause the cakes to ‘fall’. Mum explained that she always added a little extra bicarbonate of soda to make her cakes extra light and fluffy – and extra sensitive to boisterous children bumping around the kitchen. In trying to teach me some cooking skills, she further explained the rules of cooking sponges: don’t beat it too much, no unnecessary thuds while it’s rising – slamming the oven door is death! – and allow plenty of space above the cake tin for it to rise.

Few would argue with the belief that humour in business is beneficial. But getting it to work is as tricky as getting a sponge cake to rise.

In fact, humour in business works very much the same as the bicarb in the sponge. It rises from the bottom up – but it has to be allowed to rise with the right management (cooking).

The humour that is most valuable to an organisation will generate from the lower levels up – fostering better employee and customer relations, staff creativity and well being – which will help the organisation ‘rise’ to greater levels of productivity. But it has to be given the right treatment. If staff perceive management disdain – or, worse, disapproval – for their fun-generating activities, then these activities will become divorced from the workplace – taking with them all the positive effects.

Of course, staff who are having fun might not look as diligent as the joyless ones, but they will probably achieve more and feel more satisfied for doing it.

"Cut that out and let’s see some work done around here!" is as bad as slamming the oven door. Prowling around the office with a scowl on your face is like sticking a lid on the cake tin.

This is not to say that management cannot generate fun. They are in a unique position to initiate humour initiatives. But unless the fun is generated from the bottom up, the organisation will not benefit; so management’s most valuable role is in demonstrating acknowledgement and approval for staff-initiated humour.

In all the time I have been involved in Humour in Business training, I have encountered one common problem. Staff are able to generate a huge number of ideas, but management are unable - or unwilling – to create the right atmosphere for this to have its benefits.

David Baum says "A company that has fun, where employees joke with each other, put cartoons on the wall and celebrate, is spirited, creative and usually profitable." Let your staff have fun – and watch your organisation rise.

Other articles: In-Flight Fun Fun in 'The Fridge' Hospitality Humour 16 Ways to bring fun to your workplace Training Fun

These are examples of the value of humour in business, the subject of my keynote presentation "Bottom-Line Humour – making fun a profit factor". I also conduct training seminars for staff in Humour in the Workplace.