Positive leadership & workplace humour with Alan Peck
Posted by webmaster 29 July 2006
In June 06, 220 CIN members were tag-teamed by Alan Peck of Positive Leadership and Troy & Zara of Humour Australia on the importance of a workplace in which positive leadership and serious fun thrive.
Positive leadership is the art, science and discipline of designing and making operational, an environment where people focus on and move toward, positive outcomes that the organisation has defined as important. People have a finite amount of focus and the more they waste that focus on distractions and negatives, the less there is for performing the core functions needed to achieve their own and the organisation’s best results.
Alan used examples of how a positive approach aids in personal and organisational health, improves performance, career advancement and achievement of KPI’s including absenteeism and staff turnover. There is a far greater incentive to remain at (or return to) work if the environment is one in which we don’t solely combat the negatives but also consistently role model positive attitudes and behaviours.
Troy & Zara adopted different personas during the course of their presentations, starting off by turning the entire theatre into a crime scene as the Humour Police and finishing as themselves with an equally amusing (but serious) overview of why humour in the workplace is crucial to consistent high performance. Research shows that when people are good humoured together bonds are created, people enjoy one another’s company and they become more positive team players. Not having, suppressing or losing our senses of humour can quite literally make us sick. It can be a contributing factor to stress, tiredness, frustration, conflict and poor morale.
In a time when work related stress is a major issue the use of humour, fun and play has been neglected for more conservative interventions that have not always had great effect. Humour represents one of the highest forms of human intelligence and is one of the most developed cognitive functions. According to Daniel Pink in his book “a whole new mind,” “Humour is one of the brain’s most powerful attributes – the ability to place situations in context, to glimpse the big picture and to combine differing perspectives into new alignments”
Have you ever heard a joke about your organisation that seems to capture the culture and management styles better than a meticulously administered and hugely expensive culture survey ?
According to Edward de Bono, humour “.. is the key lubricant of life, humour is social glue and the best anti-arrogance device. It is the best anti-despair device and what may set man apart from other creatures. So why is humour so neglected ?” Attendees at the session reported:
“I am absolutely enthralled with what I have learned today. I will be following up with positive psychology and also taking this up in my workplace.”
“I will share the learnings from this seminar with my colleagues and tell them of the inspiring speakers and what I gained form the session.”
“Very different, very entertaining and highlighted a tremendous area of opportunity for us.”
“It helped restore my sense of humour and was much needed after the worst week at work.”
“An important message for all workplaces, delivered to perfection.”
“I peed my pants, it was fantastic.”
The CIN would like to thank Alan, Troy and Zara for their energy, humour and timely message.
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