Bad situations are no laughing matter. . . or are? Laughter can be used to relax people, blur explosive situations, and put people in a receptive mood.
On the HBO TV series Brothers band, Easy Company is training late at night. As they run up a path, one of the soldiers asks permission to speak. Lieutenant Dick Winters grants you permission. The private sector wants to know why Easy Company always runs, runs and does additional training, while the other companies do not. Lieutenant Winters asks him what he thinks. The private claims that he believes the company commander hates Easy Company. Lieutenant Winters responds by telling him that the company commander does not hate Easy Company. Lieutenant Winters then clarifies his statement: “He hates you.” All the soldiers laugh. They know it is not true. With a smile they accept the punishing training and work harder.
Writer and corporate trainer Don Doman tells the story of when he worked at The Boeing Airplane Company years before respect became standard operating procedure. “A friend of mine felt he had been insulted. Max, he had traveled from Texas to Washington to work for Boeing, which paid good salaries. It seemed like he was one step away from violence.” A supervisor had called him Gomez. “My name is Rodríguez,” Max explained, rolling R to give the supervisor the correct Spanish pronunciation of the name. A short time later, the supervisor called him: “Hello, González.” “My name is Rodríguez,” my friend explained again, this time with grunts and tears to the supervisor, who was giving orders without noticing his narrowed eyes. The supervisor left to annoy someone else. Max was getting angrier and angrier. Max looked like he could do some damage. Although he was of Mexican descent, he was over six feet tall. It was fast and strong. He had played soccer in high school.
Don didn’t really care about the supervisor, but he did care about his friend. He had a wife and son and much of his life ahead of him. Don spoke, “Max, how do you pronounce your name?” “Rrrrrrrrrrodrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriguez,” Max growled. Don smiled and said, “That’s funny, up here we pronounce it st.” Max stopped short. He turned his head and looked Don in the eye. Don looked back at him and then smiled. Max laughed. The pain disappeared and the violence was forgotten. “We both knew the supervisor was not a good manager. Max is the one who would have gotten into trouble,” Don revealed. “We laughed at his stupidity and went back to work.” If this happened today, there would be lawsuits.
During the Second Punic War, Hannibal withdrew from the Roman army until he found a place where he wanted to fight. He stopped and turned his army of Carthaginians, Spaniards, and Africans to face the much larger Roman force. Hannibal placed his men and then everyone watched as the Romans brought more and more troops to the Cannae fields. “My God, they will never stop coming,” commented a commander named Gisko with a little fear and amazement. Hannibal said, “Yes, the Romans count their men in the tens of thousands … But none of them are called Gisko.” The joke was thrown back and forth with laughter and harsh humor. The message was clear: “The Romans are not us. They are the ones who should be afraid.” Hannibal wasn’t worried. He had confidence in his men. They were well trained and Hannibal knew how to use them. Outnumbered from 77,000 to 35,000, Hannibal slowly unveiled his strategy and his army’s capabilities to the enemy and surrounded him. Barely 5,000 Romans escaped. None of them were laughing.
Humor is a great tool for spreading negative situations and it is an even better training tool. You can use humor to view business training scenarios, from teamwork to customer service. For years, the master of business training has been John Cleese. The picks from his “From Hell” series are always a great way to start a meeting or seminar. My favorite is Customers from Hell.
“John Cleese’s training videos always add a touch of humor to seminars and workshops, no matter what you’re looking for: sales training, motivation, or team building.”
– Promotion copy for John Cleese training videos
By making fun of different situations, employees have the opportunity to see the humor in their own actions and those of others. Laughter relaxes. Change the mood. People become more receptive. It can blur bad situations, and that’s no joke.