The Australian workforce is overworked, overwhelmed and over it.
Did you know there has been a 54% increase in workplace mental stress claims in the past five years?
$543 million is paid in workers’ compensation for work-related mental health conditions every year.
Turnover costs Australian Companies $3.8 Billion. (Yep that’s with a ‘B’ – $3.8 Billion!)
I’m just going to let that sink in for a moment.
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When employees are disconnected and disengaged, conflict in the workplace increases, workplace culture suffers, and you experience higher levels of workplace stress.
People can’t be their best when they’re stressed.
What can your leadership team do to ensure your company is not part of the statistics?
How do you get teams and employees motivated, engaged, energised and resilient so you can operate at peak levels of performance and productivity?
Humour in the workplace can help.
Research has shown that humour in the workplace can help with workforce health, productivity and leader effectiveness.
BUT…
Only when it’s done right!
Humour done wrong, can potentially be distracting, damaging and dangerous. You could be looking at a harassment case quicker than you can say “3 men walk into a bar”! Therefore, workplaces often avoid humour altogether – despite its proven benefits.
How to do workplace humour safely
A better way to include humour in the workplace is through Comic Intelligence. (Don’t worry if you’ve never heard the term Comic Intelligence – it’s new!)
What is Comic Intelligence?
Comic Intelligence is the skill of combining the power of LAUGHTER AND HUMOUR to improve business outcomes.
Above: The Benefits of Comic Intelligence
Most of us know that laughter can reduce stress and increase endorphins giving immediate psychological and physiological benefits.
But those benefits are only temporary.
Once the laughter stops, so do the benefits.
To help reduce stress levels of employees who are overworked, overwhelmed and over it; resilience, adaptability, confidence and productivity need to be improved … but laughing by itself won’t fix these underlying issues.
That’s because laughter is only half of the equation.
To generate laughter, you need humour. The problem is, that in Business, many people misunderstand what humour is.
The other half of the equation is humour
In Business, humour IS NOT about:
– Being Funny
– Cracking Jokes
– Getting Laughs
In Business, humour IS about:
– Connection
– Engagement
– Feeling Good
For example, when you want employees to have a “good sense of humour”, you don’t really want them doing Stand-Up Comedy Routines in their lunch break, do you? What you probably want is for them to be productive while having a positive outlook and getting along well with the team.
Humour develops your awareness, understanding and creativity.
Humour provides the powerful long-term benefits of resilience, adaptability, confidence and productivity.
Comic Intelligence is the skill of combining the power of LAUGHTER AND HUMOUR to improve business outcomes.
ABOVE: Comic Intelligence – Combining the Power of Laughter & Humour
WANT TO FIND OUT MORE?
If you would like to find out how your Organisation can develop its Comic Intelligence to improve productivity and performance, you can:
- Book in a chat with Kate – email me at kate@kateburr.com.au to arrange a time
- Join me for my upcoming webinar: “Risk-Free Workplace Humour – Increase Productivity and Improve Business Outcomes” (Save your seat here: https://kateburr.lpages.co/online-masterclass-risk-free-workplace-humour/
