72 ways to bring more humour to the workplace

Compilation by participants in Workforce Healing Power of Humour Workshop

1. Create a Wally of the Week award
2. Share 10 minutes neck and shoulder massage
3. Identify your own stress indicators
4. Sing a lot at work when least expected
5. Create surprise celebrations for any reason
6. Stat each meeting with a joke
7. Have a weekly short yoga class
8. Bring cds on a Friday
9. Have walking lunches
10. Acknowledge life outside work with photos and personal touches
11. Compulsory happy hour every Friday
12. Create a coffee run and make the delivery a fun thing
13. Create nicknames for everyone…make it a competition to kick it off
14. Stop writing in straight lines….create fun correspondence
15. Encourage others to exercise once a day…do mini gym session
16. Initiate a joint venture and pass it around
17. Take unusual items to work for display and show and tell
18. Go looking for butterflies in your break
19. Welcome keyworkers at the door
20. Make every encounter a happy one by smiling and saying hello
21. Walk in backwards to meetings every day for a week
22. Let everyone have a turn at being Chair of meetings or being manager
    Pan regular team building meetings say every 3 months
23. Wear an animated accessory once a week
24. Talk about Gerge Bush
25. Put food dye in the milk
26. Send colleagues humourous cards
27. Have meetings where everybody is the chairperson and there is only one non-chairperson
28. Have one 15 min break daily an gather and laugh for 12.5 mins
29. Have a funny hat day
30. Hang cheerful posters
31. Use positive quotes to begin and end meetings
32. Create an open environment – conduct forums
33. Practice open honest and non-judging behaviour
34. Indulge in appreciative enquiry
35. Start your own or go to a karaoke club
36. Personalize your workspace and hold a competition
37. Display artwork both professisonal and amateur
38. Display childrens artwork
39. Conduct treasure hunts
40. Launch your own joke club
41. Conduct in house quizzes
42. Celebrate with peers and management small progresses
43. Walk around the office with toilet paper hanging out of your pants
44. Stand in a  lift and mutter at light switch
45. Share the amusing aspects of your life
46. Just smile
47. Take a risk….at least once a day
48. Greet people by their name
49. Develop codes to defuse tense situations
50. Wear a funny badge
51. Send witty poetry  or quotes
52. Arrive at work in character..mask or funny glasses
53. Play a silly song to make others laugh or to draw attention
54. Do newspaper puzzle collectively
55. Buy magazines and share insights from same
56. Laugh at yourself
57. Training is fun….make it happen
58. Focus on the positive
59. Make sushi
60. Go shopping
61. Fulfill your own or others wishes
62. Don’t worry
63. Learn a few jokes …and tell them all the time
64. Swap hats with someone else
65. Swap jobs for a day
66. BYO and share lunch
67. Play a childs game…hopscotch?
68. Use the FISH program mood badges
69. Direct positive comments to others
70. Have fun competitions between teams
71. Send flowers
72. Display flowers in reception

My top five signature strengths as determined by Seligmans VIA Signature Strengths survey have become my five most joyous habits.'  

In his book “Authentic Happiness” Seligman isolates 24 strengths which are curiosity, love of learning, critical thinking, ingenuity/originality, social/emotional/personal intelligence, perspective, courage, valor/bravery, perseverance, integrity, kindness, justice, teamwork. loyalty, fairness, leadership, temperance, self control, humility, appreciation of beauty/excellence, gratitude, optimism, spirituality, forgiveness/mercy, playfulness/humour  and zest/passion/enthusiasm.

Mine are in order of strength:-
1.    Appreciation of beauty and excellence
2.    Capacity to love and be loved
3.    Creativity, ingenuity and originality
4.    Humour and playfulness
5.    Kindness and generosity

Irrespective of where I am and what I am doing when I stay connected to these strengths I experience more joy and more harmony irrespective of money or circumstance.  These are innate qualities and in hindsight I see evidence of their influence in my most significant life experiences.  

Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence
This strength is the essence of the notion stopping to smell the roses.  It has a requirement that we need to be present in order to appreciate.  It covers all domains of beauty, excellence and skill and when intense brings a sense of awe and wonder.  Human moral beauty strikes me and brings me periods of what Seligman calls elevation.  On my trip last year with Patch Adams I felt this most strongly in a moment when I communed with Patch and a two year old with cerebral palsy.  The beauty of Patch’s naked soul, the art of his clown persona and his willingness to be vulnerable has been the most stark act to which I have contributed.  As he played the compassionate clown, so did I and I saw the mirror of my soul reflecting back.

Capacity to Love and be loved
In this strength lies the essence of valuing close and intimate relationship with others.  A quick check is to ask if people feel the same way back to you?  This is not just about sexual relations or romance, but about an ability to connect and love and allow love in.  Trust is integral to this association, and I recall recently a new friend who was about to have her second mastectomy asking me to help her create a photographic journey of her body as it was before surgery.  In that creative union was absolute love and trust in an extremely vulnerable and painful time and the creation of Healing Art.  

I am honoured to have always had people share intimate things with me, even on just meeting me.  I met the father of a young boy who had fallen to his death and he shared with me as a virtual stranger his grief and loss.  I felt his pain like I have felt no-one else’s in my life, and his story was actually the pre-cursor for the Joyologist’s journey!  My business now is about championing intimate communion, transforming global pessimism, and transforming individuals to reveal inner spirit and witnessing the joy of transformation.

Creativity, Ingenuity and Originality
This is creativity in its broadest sense, not just limiting it to the pursuit of the fine arts.  It is about being outstanding in how you find novel and appropriate ways to achieve your goals.  Conventionality does not picture in here !  It can also be called practical intelligence, common sense or street smart.  I believe fortune favours those who dare and have used my creativity often in times when a tight budget might otherwise have constrained me.  My mentor for a number of years was Mike Hutcheson ( former Saatchi and Saatchi Md ) and in my initial approach to him when I began the Joyologist journey I had no budget to make my pitch for support.  And so I wrapped a make up sponge, a bottle of Dettol,  2 cotton buds and a bandaid in cellophane and gifted it to him with the following sentence “ Mike I am not here to sponge off you, but I do have the germ of an idea, it has a couple of applications and I don’t want it to be bandaid job”.  I asked for his support and he said yes.  

Humour and Playfulness
People with this strength enjoy making others laugh and bringing smiles to peoples faces.  They are optimists and see the bright side of life.  In my experience they believe themselves to be resilient and so they are.  I am resilient and I attribute much of my resilience to the optimism that lies inherent in my persona.  In the last four years as the worlds first Joyologist I have made it my business to know more about the theory and practice of being good-humoured ( I am not a comedian) and I have sought ways to help others find more humour and lighten up.  I have given over 300 presentations in this time all with a humour and health focus.  The World Health Organisation statistics tell me that depression is currently World Health Burden number four.  By 2020 they predict it will be World Health Burden number two.  My prediction is that by 2020 we will have an intimacy revolution and the key to creating that will be the creation of high trust environments where people perform to optimum having fun doing what it is that they love. 

Kindness and Generosity                           
Empathy, sympathy and compassion are useful components of this strength.  Typically epitomized in this strength is the notion of giving to others and recognizing and acknowledging their true worth.  The interests of others has always consumed me and my highest points in life have been around ventures or projects where I have had the opportunity to positively influence the life of another.  Sixteen years nursing supported me to develop this strength and skill and combined now with full creative expression I can exemplify the person of the compassionate clown – whether in costume or not.  My greatest single act in this expression was fulfilled on my tour with patch Adams through Russia in 2004.  For 16 days I was in compassionate clown persona, in the moment and just being.  I was the essence of who I really am, totally representing each of these five strengths.  I have never felt more vital and alive in my whole life.  Full creative expression, totally responsive to each environment we entered and absolutely present for each orphan child I met.  This was a feeling sustained for 16 consecutive days

These strengths feel like the real me.  Over the years, especially in times of loss or upheaval, I have failed to use them to full effect.  Now that my focus is harnessed habitually on these five strengths, I feel a predominant sense of excitement, my capacity to learn has accelerated, I am consumed by a sense of yearning to use my gifts, I am invigorated and constantly developing projects, and I experience more joy, zest and enthusiasm!

12 Ways to be a 21st Century Visionary
Marcia Weider




A 21st Century Visionary:

1. Is comfortable with uncertainty, the place where true creation occurs. He or she knows we were created to create and allows the time and space for this to occur.

2. Has extraordinary faith. They are able to act on what’s important to them even without assurance and guarantees. They can walk on faith without knowing the strategy or even clear next steps.

3. Knows that the secret to enlightenment is to relax. As we relax, our ego (with its agenda, fears and doubts) can slip away and we are left with our essential self, essence or soul.

4. Practices getting empty, so they can hear the voice of the Divine and/or feel this presence. They often create ritual and sacred space as way to invite this in.

5. Can consciously drop into a deeper place of wisdom, knowing and truth and can ideate/dream, and speak from this place.

6. Is aware that miracles happen in their own time and is able to wait rather than asserting his or her will or effort too soon. They trust the process enough to let it unfold.

7. Is receptive and knows that “give and take” is not the same as “give and receive” and that giving and receiving need to be done in balance. They practice restraint, allowing space for the space where true creation and original thought happen.

8. Does not live primarily as a problem solver, but more as a creative force. They are aware that it is more powerful to move toward what you want than away from what you don’t want, yet they know that both creation and destruction serve.

9. Has a conscious relationship with the silent witness, the part that can see many points of view, all sides and new perspectives. They are big dreamers with great imagination and willing to traverse new terrain.

10. Is collaborative rather than hierarchal. They have the courage, clarity and commitment to share dreams and ideas and empower others to take ownership.

11. Is crucial to the Dream Movement's ultimate dream, which is to make the world a better place. They know that with one single highly intentional step, the world can and has changed.

12. Has tremendous integrity. Beyond keeping their agreements with themselves and others, they answer to a higher Source. They usually have a purpose, mission, vision, calling and dreams in many areas of life

When this happens, the scientists have observed under a high-powered microscope that the cells of every organ display a sad face, and when the Clown Chakra is open and functioning normally, the cells display a happy face. The scientists realized that if a person is ill, it is because his mind has projected guilt onto the cells of his body and has forced out the love that is normally found within each cell of the body. 

The cells are therefore saying, "I Lack Love," or "ILL" for short.

The scientists also discovered that all disease is due to the fact that the cells are out of ease or dis-eased. When the Clown Chakra is opened and working (or rather, playing) properly, the psychic mechanism sucks up misery, pain, anger, resentment, grievances, unhappiness, etc., and converts the energy into tiny red heart-shaped balloons. The red heart-shaped balloons contain Love and Joy. These balloons are directed to the dis-eased
cell or situation, and a happy face appears instantly. When the light enters the darkness, the darkness is gone. Sometimes these red heart-shaped balloons are called endorphins, due to the fact that when anyone experiences them, the feeling of separation ends. They experience being back home with All That Is and hence are no longer an orphan. 

This is the well-known end-orphan (endorphin) effect.

So, if you think someone is attacking you, Clown Scientists recommend that you visualize sending that person red heart-shaped balloons filled with Love and Joy. Remember to keep your Clown Chakra open and remember to laugh. Seriousness causes reincarnation.