Lighten Up! They May Get Your Message More Easily

Gentle reader:

Kind, well-intentioned managers faced with performance problems among their earnest subordinates often respond by arranging training programs to re-educate employees and fix whatever ills have befallen their companies. In many cases, however, training is not the solution, and forcing employees to endure it is to everyone’s disadvantage and displeasure. The quiz on this page will give you some idea of when training is called for and when it is not.

When training is appropriate, it can be much more bearable and even more effective if it is presented with humor and style, as writer David Olmos esplains on Page 9. Take the accompanying quiz and find out whether your training programs are suitably silly.

Ms. Work Wise

Readers of the Careers section first met Ms. Work Wise last November when the etiquette-savvy fictional character created by our readers joined real-life columnist Judith Martin (a.k.a. “Miss Manners”) to address problems related to rudeness in the workplace. Ms. Work Wise returns in this issue to introduce stories on different types of training and will continue to appear as a voice in careers.

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C’mon, lighten up, laugh a little.

You might learn something.

In fact, before you read on, try making a goofy face at a co-worker or, if you’re reading this at home, at your spouse, roommate, child or dog.

It might help you remember this story. And there’ll be a quiz later.

The experts say a little lightheartedness helps us learn and retain information. It’s what humor consultant Joel Goodman calls the “ha-ha/aha connection.”

The teacher who tells funny stories to get the attention of students during math class knows about it. So does the comedy traffic school instructor. And so does the minister or rabbi who uses an amusing story to perk up the congregation during a spiritual lesson.

In corporate America, a growing number of firms, from Southwest Airlines to long-distance carrier Sprint, have learned the value of humor for training and informing employees and customers.

“Humor can capture your attention, and if you don’t have attention, you don’t have learning,” says Goodman, director of Humor Project Inc. in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. “One of the biggest blocks to learning is fear. Humor relaxes us and reduces fear.”

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Beyond training programs, companies are also realizing that in an era of overworked, anxious employees, a little levity can help reduce stress, boost creativity and foster teamwork.

Everyone can recall a lecture or corporate training program in which the speaker droned on. An entire morning went by, and you can’t remember one thing, except the speaker’s mind-numbing monotone and seemingly endless collection of mystifying charts and graphs.

That’s not likely to happen at Southwest Airlines, the Dallas-based carrier known for its fun-loving flight attendants and offbeat corporate culture. The airline’s focus on frivolity also extends to its internal training programs.

When Rita Bailey, Southwest’s director of employee learning and development, was leading a brainstorming session for the airline’s corporate public relations department, she was looking for an “ice breaker” to begin the all-day session.

“We weren’t going to just put on name tags, we needed to step out of the box,” says Bailey. “We wanted people to loosen up and think outside of having to be so cautious and careful like they are in their everyday jobs.”

The 25 or so employees did wear name tags, but instead of their own names, they were asked to choose someone famous or someone they admired. After picking a name, they were told they’d have to act out a brief skit to show something about the person they had chosen.

“When Rita asked us to act our names out, I thought, ‘No way,’ ” says Amy Lyons, a Southwest public relations manager who chose fictional FBI agent Dana Scully of TV show “The X-Files.” But she says she and the others got into their acting bits.

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“I tried to shoot down an alien,” she laughs. “Our department vice president had always wanted to be Tina Turner, and she started shaking all over the room and singing that ‘rolling, rolling down the river’ song.”

When Sprint opened a small business center in Louisville, Ky., last year, it asked new employees to create commercials (not for actual use). The employees then developed skits based on their commercials and acted out parts in them.

“We wanted to have fun but also have a learning experience where we differentiated Sprint as an employer,” says Margery Tippen, a Sprint vice president in Dallas. “We use humor to take learning from more of a listening mode to a a more heartfelt one. We hope that when these employees speak to customers about Sprint, they will actually believe in their hearts what they are telling people.”

Experts say employees are more likely to learn and retain information in a session that requires them to be physically active and includes some frivolity as part of the presentation.

“People remember more through kinesthetic learning,” says Fran Solomon, a humor consultant and “vice empress” at Playfair Inc., a Berkeley consulting firm. “When you laugh or get up and move around, there is a mind-body association that helps you retain information.”

That’s why, Solomon adds, “the things we remember from the distant past often are those when we were laughing hysterically.”

Solomon, a former New York public school teacher, and other humor gurus suggest various ways in which trainers or speakers can get their groups to relax, have fun and pay attention. Here are a few:

* Ask people to stand, breathe deeply, smile and make a funny face at the person next to them.

* Tell the group that whenever someone feels their attention is wavering or the session is getting boring, they can request a “personal standing ovation” from the group.

* During a break, ask people to find people with the same astrological sign or who were born in the same state.

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“People get very rigid in training sessions when they’re just sitting there, and that’s not an ideal situation for a sense of humor to thrive,” says Roma L. Felible, who runs a Phoenix consulting firm with her husband, C.W. Metcalfe.

“Breaking that physical habit, that pattern of tension by loosening up and doing something untoward is an excellent way to get yourself relaxed and shift your point of view,” she says.

For people who organize or lead training sessions, overcoming their own inhibitions can be a challenge in getting others to loosen up.

“Some people think, ‘I’m a trainer, not a comedian,’ ” says Solomon. “I tell them that they don’t have to be a comedian, you just have to get people moving, be a facilitator.”

The point, she says, is not to tell jokes that have the audience erupting in side-splitting laughter. Rather, the objective is to create a whimsical or lighthearted feeling in the group.

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Solomon suggests giving out bags of candy or gag gifts--funny pens, fake animal noses or children’s soap bubbles--to people who ask questions. Trainers can also try playing goofy music, using funny posters or props, including humorous cartoons in their visual presentations or, more simply, “not taking themselves so seriously.”

“A big misconception is that you’re either born funny or you’ve missed the boat,” says Goodman of Humor Project. He recalls comedian Steve Allen once telling him that “when it comes to humor, perhaps we are born with a genetic ceiling or floor. But’s it what we do with our lives that determines whether we end up on the ceiling or the floor.”

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The Fun Factor

Does your training class have enough fun? Take this test to find out.

1. You play active learning games in class. +2

2. You play so many active learning games in class you figure you can give up your health club membership and save 500 bucks. +4

3. Trainer has a bad hair day and takes it out on the class. --2

4. Trainer covers own bad hair day by encouraging class to celebrate “National Bad Hair Day” by wearing wigs, bandannas and crazy hats. +5

5. The trainer uses colorful graphs, slides, rock music and 3-D glasses. +2

6. The student next to you snores so loudly she wakes you from a great nap. --3

7. You discover you actually like learning about how the model CXT-2000 interfaces with the PF-90 Radical Junction Relay, because the trainer uses humorous anecdotes as teaching points. +1

8. The trainer shows a Three Stooges video to illustrate a point about total quality management. +2

9. When grading quizzes, the trainer gives one point for the correct answer and two points for the funniest answer. +2

10. The class celebrates each student’s birthday with a birthday cake. +1

11. The trainer brings the cakes himself. +2

12. The trainer bakes the cakes himself. +3

13. The only writing implements allowed in the training room are novelty pens in the shape of bananas, pickles and rubber chickens. +1

14. The trainer tells racist or off-color jokes. -2

15. The class laughs at them. --5

16. As a surprise, trainer has pizzas delivered during daylong session. +2

17. Students have so much fun they “fail” on purpose so they can continue taking classes from this instructor. +2

18. The trainer encourages all students to come “dressed as your favorite holiday.” You come dressed as George Washington. Your friend comes as the Easter Bunny. The trainer comes “pregnant” as Labor Day. +5

How to interpret your score:

Add total points scored in items 1-18.

0-5: Severely laughter-impaired

6-10: Mildly fun-deprived.

11-20: Trainer deserves a raise.

21+: Save me a seat! This class is gonna be fun.

This test was created for The Times by Playfair, a Berkeley-based management consulting firm that helps organizations have more fun at work.