Ten top tips on how to get more humour into learning and development
“That was a slow shuffle through hell – let’s do this again!” said no-one ever. Are you a facilitator, teacher or trainer? Here’s how to use laughter to look after people’s energy and, equally importantly, your own.
1. Make introductions humorous
Yes, you can use 12 lines of text on a slide to introduce yourself. You may also need to use that clip of Mongolian throat singing to get people’s attention after you’ve finished.
Introductions are important. And they’re nice.
We’re all curious about each other and you can tap into this by making your introduction into a bit of a game. Get people thinking.
I use three simple images: a number, a cartoon character and a photo of a place.
I invite the group to guess what these say about me. It can produce some interesting results. For example, I don’t have 19 children.
The moral here: Simplicity + mystery + humour = an engaged audience.
2. Don’t take yourself too seriously
For the final session in a business English course that I taught the format was set up like a pub quiz (minus the beer – it was at the client company’s premises during business hours. But we did have hot chocolate with whipped cream and Christmas cookies). The group was put into teams and there were a series of different rounds testing their knowledge of the material we’d covered and also some fun stuff.
For example, there was a music round and the theme was money – and so the task was to identify the singer and song name from the introduction of the song. As it was Christmas time I also added to the festivities and dressed up as an elf. I was red and green from head to toe and my felt hat had a bell on the end of it. It was a fun session and there was a lot of laughter.
There’s one caveat here. Timing is important. If I’d turned up 6 weeks earlier to start teaching the course dressed as an elf the company would have wondered “Who is this clown?” But after a few weeks, at Christmas time and at the end of the course dressing as an elf is a different matter.
The moral here: choose your timing for when to add some fun.
3. Post its make perfect
They say variety is the spice of life. When I create a new workshop I want to build in plenty of variety. Coloured post-its help with this. Each colour represents a different kind of task learners will do. So, for example:
Blue – me talking/lecturing
Purple – individual work
Red – paired discussion
Orange – group discussion
Pink – audiovisual clip
Green – some kind of group game
Yellow – something light hearted or fun
The post-its act like building blocks and at a glance you can see how balanced your programme is. For light relief and fun, make sure that when you scan your post-its you have a good representation of green and yellow ones sprinkled in there.
The moral here: Build in humour and fun as intrinsic parts of your course design.
4. Laugh when things are tough
Learning is what keeps the stuff between our ears young. Yet learning can also be tough and sometimes like swimming uphill through mud. Which brings me to a field. In Belgium. With lots of mud.
Why was there so much mud? At that time Belgium was getting all the rain. ALL the rain. There was no other rain anywhere on the planet. It was hanging out in Belgium, having a fine, old time.
I was co-trainer on a leadership course with young, soon to be managers in hospitality and there were 12 of us walking through the countryside in February. It was night time, we had miner’s torches on our heads, and students were trying, with the aid of a simple paper map, to find a certain field and set up camp.
Rain. Mud. Darkness. Moods starting to fray. Just a bit.
Someone started singing and soon a few songs had been sung and moods were lifted. My offering was the melodious, Scottish classic “Ye canny shove yer Granny aff the bus.” *
The moral here: When things get tough it’s time to dig deep. Humour can add some much needed relief.
5. Mix up your material
Laughter is full of contrasts. And by adding a few contrasts into how you teach you could up the fun factor for your audience. So, although you could be teaching something complex, the way you teach this could be to take a whimsical or novel approach. Take Ed Sheeran and molecular chemistry.
The moral here: Be bold. Add a bit of va-va voom.
6. A little bit of competition
Married to a modern day Viking, I used to live in Reykjavik. I learned that Icelanders LOVE competitions. They don’t care about winning a prize. Winning in itself is more than enough. And this holds true across all ages.
I once worked with the leadership team of a life science company. Their task was to assemble a puzzle that I’d created and they were doing this in groups. There was lots of energy and laughter in the room. Once completed each group was invited to check the other group’s answers. So intense was the competitive spirit that one person stayed back from each group to make sure there was no cheating.
The moral here: People LOVE a competition. How can you include this in your teaching?
7. A little bit of constraints
Let’s start with an equation:
> Constraints = > creativity
One of the happiest things I’ve done in the last year is to co-found a Public Speaking and Debating Club at Hotelschool the Hague. During one session students showcased their presentation and sales skills. They were put into pairs, given a random object and had 15 minutes to craft and then present their sales pitch.
The stories behind the products were innovative.
One pair introduced a woven ball of straw with a tale of wonder and intrigue. This ball, we were told, represented the Earth. And their story continued to tell us how this simple but potent device could solve climate change.
Then there was a bubble gum pink apron complete with blue sash and rosette declaring “Queen of the kitchen.” Naturally, I gave this to two men.
Their presentation involved them modelling the piece, and introducing their product for today’s metro men with a chunk of proceeds going to cure puppies with cancer.
The moral here: crazy constraints encourage crazy good fun and crazy good ideas.
8. Laugh as a team
I once worked for a health education charity in Edinburgh called Fast Forward. We were a diverse group who were different ages, from different backgrounds and working on different projects. However, there was something magical that seemed to happen about 3 o’clock every day.
There was never anything official or organized but for 10 of 15 minutes we would sit and chat and just laugh. I remember a lot of laughter. Maybe it was falling blood sugar levels or maybe it was just an unconscious gathering of people letting off a bit of steam.
The moral here: protect time for chilling out as a team during working hours.
9. Keep it social
Meet out of working hours with your team to keep it being a productive, happy one. The more regularly you can do this the better or it will just feel like you’re circling around polite conversation. Make work chat off limits. If it helps consider using a quiz so the focus is on that.
During these lockdown times, I organized one online team social, sending out glamorous e-invites complete with dress code. Long story short, one person arrived in cocktail attire (three guesses who?): full make up, Ralph Lauren dress and her grandmother’s crystal necklace – N.B. make sure people know when you’re joking and when you’re not. I wasn’t joking.
The moral here: make team social events a regular activity.
10. Nonsense
This. Just this.
The moral here: we all need silly in our lives. It’s a great way to re-energise, even just for a few brief seconds.
So, to summarise, to get more laughter into your teaching:
1. Make introductions humorous 🤝
2. Don’t take yourself too seriously 🤨
3. Post-its make perfect 🎉
4. Laugh when things are tough 🤣
5. Mix up your material 🎭
6. A little bit of competition 🏁
7. A little bit of constraints ⏲
8. Laugh as a team 👨👨👦👦
9. Keep it social 🍕
10. Nonsense 🤡
What about you? How do you use laughter to look after your energy or the energy of those whom you teach?
*P.S. grandmothers in Scotland are loved and cared for and suffer no discrimination on public transport.