Corporate Teams Can Benefit from Play!
- Nov 1, 2016
- 5 min read
Corporate Teams Can Benefit from Play
By Julie Ostrow
Humor, Laughter, and Improv Coach
www.GoFindTheFunny.com
What happens to a team when the manager is Mr. Grumpy Pants? If the manager in your organization has a bad attitude, you can’t send him to the principal’s office for poor behavior or give him a time out.
What can you do?
If you’re a part of the leadership team in your organization, keep an eye out for these signs and symptoms among your team members:
Low morale and bad attitudes
Poor performance and team members just doing the minimum to get by
Increase in dissatisfaction with the job and/or the company
Outwardly expression of their dissatisfaction yet offering no solution. (I believe the technical terms are complaining or gossiping.)
In my experience in the corporate world where changes occurred, communication was non-existent, and the manager would only grumble as he walked by (that was his, “Hello.”), I would hear gossiping on a daily basis. People complaining about not being told what was going on, not being treated with respect, and being ignored when they’d say, “Hello” to managers.
When management doesn’t communicate with their team members, the team members create their own stories then work and behave based on those false stories.
If you see or sense that this is happening in your organization, try this…talk to your team members. Engage with them in a way that shows your sincerity in wanting to know what is wrong. And, that you are willing to find a solution together…in a collaborative manner.
Be open to having a dialog with your staff members instead of allowing just a dictatorship to take hold.
I believe that people want to be happy and want to take pride in their work. There are some people who seem to be happy being miserable. But we’re not talking about them right now. We are talking about those who are seeking a happy, healthy environment.
When there is light-heartedness, staff members take themselves a little less seriously and are able to laugh at their mistakes. Creating and being in a positive environment contributes to an individual’s overall satisfaction with their job. And, not only with their job, but also the time they contribute to the job, their co-workers and manager, and the company itself.
Here’s the bottom line…if your employees are miserable, you, as the manager will be miserable because they won’t be producing the quality work you expect.
In turn, if you, as the manager have a negative attitude and walk around like you’re miserable, guess what? That energy—or lack of it—will spread like wildfire throughout your team.
Energy is contagious…which energy do you want your staff members to catch...positive or negative?
Get moving and create a positive environment
Through my training as a certified laughter yoga leader years ago, I recall being told that motion evokes emotion. When I conduct my humor, laughter, and improv programs I include an exercise that demonstrates how the body’s movement can dictate how the mind feels.
I have the participants slouch and say, “I am so happy about my life. I am ecstatic.” It’s quite amusing to see these people looking like depressed trolls and saying how happy they are. The incongruency is laughable. And, so we laugh. Next, I have them stand with confidence—also known as a power pose—and arms stretch out and have them shout, “I am miserable! I am so stressed!” This incongruency is also laughable. The body in the positive stance is sending positive energy to the body. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy gave a talk at TEDGlobal 2012 about the scientific evidence behind power posing. Her research study showed that standing or sitting a certain way, even for two minutes, raises testosterone levels and lowers the stress hormone cortisol.
Daydream a little. It’s good for you.
According to integrative neuroscientist Dr. Heidi Hanna (www.heidihanna.com), “When we allow our minds to wander it can provide a needed stretch that leads to greater flexibility, creativity and insight. When we experience chronic stress, go too long without taking breaks, or overly focus on one thing for too long, the brain can experience an energy hijack that limits our thought patterns to old, hard-wired, automatic pilot mode.
Play, laughter, and humor have been shown in the research to decrease toxic stress hormones in the brain, minimize inflammation in the brain and body, and enhance memory, focus and attention. Most people experience their greatest moments of clarity at the times they’re hardly trying, such as during a shower, while getting a massage, or out for a long walk in nature.” Building in strategic play time is not only good for your body, it may bring you home to what’s most important to you as you let go of all the rules and discover new territory to explore.
Infuse some fun into your work day
Joke around with your staff members can break down barriers
Try some healthy humor with your team members. The best way to bring light to a stressful situation is to acknowledge and poke fun at the stress. By healthy humor, I mean findinding the funny within a situation. The opposite of healthy humor is poking fun at or ridiculing others. That only creates more disconnect.
Humor that brings people together rather than creating a disconnect among team members.
What causes disconnect: Making fun of other team members.
What connects people: Making fun of the common situation barriers among team members.
Here's the important part: By joking around, I mean laughing at/finding humor in the stressful workloads a team may have, for example. The key is to focusall team members are experiencing. Bringing light to a somewhat heavy topic makes the topic lighter.
I feel my best when I incorporate joy and lightheartedness to my day. Yes, even when I worked in the corporate world where ‘having fun’ was not allowed, I found myself constantly finding the funny in stressful moments. I would make a point of finding my humor peeps…co-workers I could make laugh by poking fun at myself and the stress we were under. Laughing together brought us together.
Laughing in the workplace is not a crime.
Laughing in the workplace should be a requirement.
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About the author, Julie Ostrow
Trained improvisor at the The Second City in Chicago and comedienne, Julie shares her humor and personal insights from her “woopsies” and “way-to-go’s” and the joys of being a woman. Her personal motto, “find the funny,” helps her to find humor in everyday moments and in life’s seemingly most difficult situations.
Julie conducts improv workshops for businesses, schools, and healthcare organizations where she teaches the art of “Yes, And…” in creating effective brainstorming sessions and being in the present moment in order to truly listen to clients, students, and patients. Julie believes in "finding the funny" in daily life and in life’s challenging moments. Through the use of humor and laughter, she demonstrates to audiences how lightening our lives can lead to more joy and ultimately, healing on all levels—physical, emotional, and spiritual. A certified laughter yoga leader, Julie is the First-Ever American Laughing Champion and a contributing author of “The Happiness Recipe…Wit, Wisdom, and Wonderful Food.”
She is a contributing author to The Positive Psychology People blog (www.PositivePsychologyPeople.com), has presented at the annual Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (www.aath.org) at the Applied Improv Network (www.appliedimprovisation.network) conference.
Julie is a frequent guest of Milwaukee’s TV show, “The Morning Blend” and has been referred to as “The friend of the Blend.” (www.TheMorningBlend.com)
Julie’s presentations and workshops:
“Stressed Out? Play it Out with IMPROV!”
“Life is Improv”
“Improv to Improve Communication”
“Let Your Laugh Out…Living Your Life with Gusto and Enthusiasm!”
Julie Ostrow
Humor, Laughter, and Improv Coach
www.GoFindTheFunny.com
Julie@GoFindTheFunny.com Twitter: @JulieOstrow
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gofindthefunny/
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