While, it might be true that people who laugh at themselves have the last laugh, it’s also true that sometimes it seems that people at work scowl more than smile.
Increasingly research shows that laughter enhances work in surprising ways. Humor boosts the blood flow to your brain, so you learn more, forget less, and retain your curiosity for interesting topics that leave others dry. 
Here are 5 smart skills to ratchet up the humor where you work and increase your chances for a better work environment too:
1. Check out the humor section at the local newsstand and pick up a Far Side calendar for your workplace, a book of one liners – or a hilarious CD to play in the car during your commute.
2. Read a few of the comics the next time you sit down with the newspaper and laugh out loud when you find one that resonates. Laughter is learned and it is best promoted by practice – so comics are a good place to start.
3. Ask the funniest person you know to lunch or coffee and get him or her laughing over something silly at work. Establish a new exchange based on humor and that exchange will grow so that others will join in.
4. Laugh at yourself whenever you get the chance, and you’ll get others laughing faster too, because you’ll create a setting where serotonin flows freely.
5. Reframe one problem at work into a laughable act and describe the funnier side to another person at work. If they laugh too you have succeeded in passing on the gift of humor, and that catches on like wildfire.
Laughter can also work against the brain, when we diminish others, or offend people because we laugh at what they consider too crude or too sacred. Be careful here, though, because people rarely enjoy being the butt of our jokes, and with good reason.
For that reason, you’d likely agree that it’s best to laugh at oneself or at the immediate situation you face at work, than at others or their backgrounds or idiosyncrasies. What makes you laugh?
Spot on Ellen! I would much rather spend my day with people who make me smile or laugh than those who don't. I think it is a sign of a lot of positive things happening in a company.
Posted by: gl hoffman | January 12, 2007 7:08 AM | Permalink to Comment