When was the last time you laughed at work? And we don’t mean a polite chuckle or posting a laugh-cry emoji in an email – but a deep, genuine belly laugh.
If it’s been a while, here are two compelling reasons to weave more laughter into your workday:
Laughter is seriously good for your wellbeing. When you laugh, it can help to reduce anger, anxiety, depression, stress, and tension. Laughing can even increase your tolerance for pain.
Laughter is seriously good for team morale. It’s often a sign of high trust among coworkers, and it signals a psychologically safe work environment. Teams that laugh together may even perform better than their serious counterparts.
Easier said than done, right? But with a little creative thinking and planning, you can create moments for laughter at work. Here are two ideas:
Does work feel all work and no play? Create space in the workday to enjoy some small talk. When people get a chance to share snippets from their personal lives, this often leads to some laugh out loud moments.
Here are some questions to prompt some small talk in your team:
How are things in your world?
What was a highlight from your weekend?
Are you watching or reading anything good at the moment?
Sometimes, these questions will prompt more serious reflections – that’s totally OK. This isn’t about trying to manipulate people to laugh more, it’s about building trust and helping people relax so laughter feels like an option.
If you stumble upon something your team will laugh about, share it around if you feel comfortable doing so. If you’re in a leadership position, you could take this one step further and bake laughter into the workday by creating these Rituals:
Create a dedicated comms channel for funny content. This might be a channel on Slack, a section in your internal newsletter, or a 5-minute spot in team meetings.
Forward funny emails. If you sign up to some newsletters that make you laugh, forward these on to your team.
Start meetings with a lighthearted video. Show a funny video at the beginning of a meeting to give people a chance to relax and reconnect with their funny bone.
It takes time to build trust and feel comfortable to laugh in a professional setting, but we hope these ideas help you get started. The most important thing to remember is that laughter needs space – space for small talk to flourish, working relationships to thrive, and banter to blossom. Start by creating space, and let laughter flow from there.