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The Good and The Bad Of Using Humor To Communicate In Business
The skilled use of humor ...
- gets a point across
- lightens a mood
- is better than therapy for brightening the workplace and energizing all who may come your way.
The good use of humor in business is a gift - the correct use of humor is a finely tuned instrument.
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Key Ideas
Humor benefits to marketing materials
- Humor breaks down walls, shows personality a.k.a. shows a brand's human side.
- Humor is attention-grabbing. It is naturally colorful and origin...
What humor is, at its worst
- The wrong joke at the wrong time. It can make your brand look amateurish and unprofessional.
- If people think you’re cracking jokes for the sole purpose of getting more attention, you’ll be seen as exploitative rather than funny.
- Humor can cheapen certain ideas or make them be taken less seriously.
- In some cases, humor can be outright offensive.
Key areas to create value with humor
- Humorous touches can almost always improve a piece that is already valuable on its own.
- If you’re sure a joke is going to land, it can make an effective advertisement. Test variations of the joke with a small audience first; that way, you can be sure the humor doesn’t cross a line.
- Brand differentiation. For example, Oreo has long differentiated itself by offering a quirky, tongue-in-cheek voice across its social media platforms. This is especially effective in dry, or otherwise “boring” industries.
- Personal branding. Elon Musk, for example, has separated himself from his companies Tesla and SpaceX by cracking jokes and roasting people on his own account.
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Key Ideas
“In workplaces that encourage people to be themselves--that are less hierarchical and more innovative--people tend..."
Michael Kerr
Why humor is a key to success at work
- People will enjoy working with you.
- Humor is a potent stress buster.
- It is humanizing.
- It puts others at ease.
- Ha + ha = aha! Humor is a key ingredient in creative thinking.
- It helps build trust.
- It boosts morale.
- People who use humor tend to be more approachable.
- Humor can allow your company to stand out.
- It can increase productivity.
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Key Ideas
Humor at work
Being funny can have both positive and negative consequences, in your personal as well as your professional life. And context is always important: when making a joke, for instance, you should defin...
Humor and its effects on the status
Humor and status have always been tightly linked: good leaders seem to often use humor in order to motivate their team members' actions. As individuals, we tend to prefer, researchers claim, jokes that make us laugh while feeling slightly uncomfortable.
Furthermore, we perceive the joke teller as a self-confident person, who could easily become a leader due to his or her courage to make such a joke. The key point here is that the joke should be appropriate and match the context.
Inside jokes
Making inside jokes usually shows how bounded a team or a group is: their jokes can understood the best by themselves.
However, the moment an outsider integrates the group, it is better to avoid the inside jokes, as this will most probably make him or her feel out of place.