No matter how weighty the decisions in corporate boardrooms may be, no matter how serious the stakes of failing, and how fraught with risk the entrepreneurial spirit, the business world can laugh. Even following the worst political, marketing, or personnel decisions.
Every decision has an equal and opposite reaction. The chances that your business will fall prey to one of them are far greater than your ability to focus on solving problems from sunrise to sunset. Anything can happen, even in our most well-crafted plans.
Yet, these are the days when laughter wins the race.
The Importance Of Humour In Business
Humour is an essential tool for those who want to combat adversity; it turns ‘lemon’ into ‘lemonade’, scythes away impeding arrows of stress, and creates safe pockets of camaraderie among teams threatened by the harsh realities of the outside world.
Identifying Risks With A Smile
Recognising Common Management Risks
The first thing managers can do when smiling and risk-taking are related is to think of each risk as an opportunity disguised as a threat. Every risk presents a moment of opportunity within it. So, instead of viewing risk with fear, consider how it offers growth possibilities.
The Power Of Positive Perception
Reality is as perception is. And in business, it’s hard to think of anywhere that this is truer. With practice, fears can be transformed from enemies to exciting adventures awaiting discovery.
Setbacks can be looked forward to as an integral part of the journey. They turn from failures, experiments that failed, to be swept under the carpet, to successes. They become proof that humans refuse to be contained, never give up, and do not let the setbacks and disappointments of the past hold them back.
Preparing For The Unexpected
Building A Resilient Team
There’s no better insurance policy than a team conditioned to trust, communicate and be flexible.
The stronger the culture, the more resilient the team. Under pressure, resilient teams learn to adapt. They know they’re stronger together than they’ll ever be alone.
Embracing Flexibility In Plans
Stiffness, the antithesis of elasticity, is the enemy of dynamic growth in the business environment.
The adaptive leader allows plans to stretch and then assumes a position to take whichever path the forces of change dictate, turning adversity into an opportunity for evolution and innovation. Abandoning outmoded tactics, the focused leader can act, twisting in any direction.
Responding To Crisis With Levity
Using Humour To De-Escalate Tension
Maintaining a unified stance is more manageable when things are going well. But when the chips are down, emotions run high, tensions rise, and some people press their panic button.
In these moments, as tension becomes a tipping point, humour can provide a cooling moment to gather some perspective. During a crisis, where things can tip in an unfavourable direction, humour can provide a moment of levity where cooperation and goodwill can thrive the most. In this sense, humour and tension are opposing forces that push and pull us in different but complementary directions. And positive outcomes are most likely to emerge when we make same-directional progress in these forces.
Maintaining Composure In Chaotic Situations
In the middle of a battle, calmness is the best leader’s friend; remaining poised through storms helps leaders build confidence and trust with their team so they can be led and united through the next storm similarly.
It’s essential that, in a panic, leaders, instead of following it, set an example for themselves and their colleagues, unfazed and resolute in the face of adversity.
Learning From Mistakes With A Chuckle
Embracing A Growth Mindset
Failures are part of the process of success, but too often, they’re met with shame and regret instead of curiosity.
With a growth mindset, you can make mistakes and learn from them, extracting wisdom from every misstep and asking what’s next.
Instead of beating yourself up for what went wrong, focus on what you can learn and how to move forward.
Celebrating Failure As A Stepping Stone To Success
Failure is not the end of the road but the road you must go on to succeed. Leaders who accept failure as a natural and necessary part of their progress can cultivate a culture of innovation and experimentation.
People in organisations feel empowered to take risks and, when they fail, feel confident to step up again in search of better outcomes without feeling like they’ll be judged or punished. If failure is considered shameful, people are less likely to want to experience it, let alone recover.
Viewed the right, with the proper perspective, failure is a sign of courage, of having pushed the limits of achieving and having dreamed big.
Fostering A Culture Of Creativity And Innovation
Encouraging Playfulness In Problem-Solving
Playful people exchange ideas and find common ground. Why not let people play a part in finding solutions to their problems? Why not trust them to sort out how they deliver in ways that bring the best out of the team?
If the workplace could be a place where playfulness is expressed, the rolling confidence would develop, and innovations would spring up. Team members’ creativity becomes part of the solution.
The leaders are involved but not doing the work; they are busy expanding playfulness. When a workplace is defined by the ‘playful pathways’ to change, formal protocols and structures of bureaucracy relax. A calmness emerges.
Harnessing The Power Of Laughter In Brainstorming Sessions
Laughter is the sound of creativity playing, a crescendo of potential becoming a symphony of possibility. Enemies of laughter at brainstorming sessions set creativity at bay and inhibit innovation.
While creating psychological safety, brainstorming sessions must give participants a reason to trust.
The discussion among colleagues in a group calling for upbeat brainstorming processes makes them feel at home as team members, where they can feel safe and become equal partners. Instead of being used as a meeting place that doubles as a morgue, engaging in an upbeat brainstorming session turns the meeting into a space where ideas become a source of play, pleasure and delight.
Final Thoughts
Grinning and bearing management risk is not about surviving tempests of distress in the cut-throat sea of business but the day-to-day reality of running a business.
I’m referring to how people should make the most of their jobs. Working life is tough and would be hopeless without a sense of humour.
Learning to transform frowns into smiles can turn failure into success, adversity into opportunity, and setbacks into stepping stones.
