A Salute to Silliness: Some Silly Ways to Add More Humor into Your Workplace
June fourth is official Salute to Silliness Day. Which isn’t as silly as it may sound, considering the stress-busting, creativity-boosting and team building benefits of being a little silly at work from time to time. Here are some of the sillier ways workplaces are putting humor to work:
- Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream has held meetings where everyone dons Grouch Marx glasses every time someone uses the word “serious”.
- Meeting participants at the St. Louis National Health Systems Office sometimes blow bubbles at the start of a meeting to loosen everyone up.
- Human Dynamics has a 3:00 p.m. ritual where everyone laughs while spinning in their chair for 30 seconds.
- Some workplaces have played a little “Stealth Disco” (not to be confused, Alex, with “Stealth Twerking”) wherein someone videos a conversation between two or more colleagues while a person silently disco dances in the background. It’s like a photo bomb, only with disco!
- One of my clients uses silly string at their meetings and launches a silly string attack whenever someone violates a meeting norm, such as using an overused buzzword or going over their allotted time to speak.
- And last but not least, still one of my favorite traditions to add a bit of silliness to your day: Third Person Thursday, where everyone refers to themselves in the third person. Mike truly loves that idea.
Michael Kerr is an international business speaker specializing in workplace culture, humor in the workplace and creativity.
