Humour can be a powerful tool in a change process. It helps create an informal atmosphere and build a relationship with the people you worked with. In this blog, Paul van Bekkum, one of the founders of Summiteers, explains why humor is so important.

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Humour puts things into perspective

A while ago, I read a column by Ben Tiggelaar about the importance of humor in the workplace. Unconsciously, we also use a lot of humor when working within organizations, with steering groups, but also to create an informal atmosphere during workshops. Humour makes it easier for people to tell what they think and unload and also puts the situation into perspective. In addition, humor helps us not to take ourselves too seriously. After all, humor is one of the four pillars of the universe. The other three? I forgot about that one....

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Vulnerability

In his column, Ben Tiggelaar mentions quite a few benefits of humor. But what do you do when you're stressed out because you don't like yourself so much? That's where vulnerability comes in, Simone wrote about that earlier a nice blog. Everyone does something stupid sometimes. Daring to be open about that is good. Being vulnerable and daring to celebrate your own mistakes creates space and makes us human. For example, our colleague Dylan uses his Limburg accent as an icebreaker. Not immediately a thug, but by not taking yourself too seriously, you make yourself vulnerable and become very approachable.

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Fuck-up of the month

That is also exactly why the 'Fuck-up of the month' is standard on the agenda in our team meeting. Everyone can nominate themselves or — in consultation, of course — a colleague and we'll pitch who wins. This makes it extremely acceptable to make mistakes, to share them and to learn from them as a group. I myself have already won twice. A dubious honor. I won once because we lost a pitch because of me. In the meeting with the — potential — client, I was far too present, even though I had too little time to manage the job. With that, I sent a completely wrong signal. But sending an email to the wrong Pietje at the wrong organization is also worth a nomination, for example. These are mistakes you can make once, but you have to learn from them.

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From humor to content

Humour serves different purposes, in every organization and in every job, but it's extra important in our work. Because we usually work temporarily at an organization, we need to build a band in no time. Humour helps with that. In addition, we often have to deal with many impactful projects and time pressure. Humor then helps to reduce tension. For example, I recently sat in a Teams meeting with a client. He was noticeably tense, was rocking and was all over the place. A joke then provides relaxation. You take someone out of their thinking stream and that creates air, which in turn leads to a better connection and better cooperation. This is how humor brings you back to the content.

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Humor must be appropriate

Of course, it is important to sense what is appropriate in certain situations. If you've been in a trench with someone for three months, you can use a different form of humor than when you're just getting to know someone in the workplace. Humor shouldn't come across as forced either and it should suit you. Created humor only works for comedians, and even that can go wrong. But rest assured, as Tiggelaar also states in his column: in the work environment, the bar is usually very low when it comes to humor.

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