Why Aren’t Businesses More Fun? Or Why Humour Can Drive Profits

So, there I was checking the catering before the passengers came on board, when I heard shouting and a few choice words from the first-class cabin.

I ran to the front to find the captain covered in tea, looking ghostly white with just the noise of the empty cup rattling in the saucer. As I turned to look where his eyes were staring, I could see our Purser curled up in the over-head locker looking rather pleased with himself.

It turned out the Purser decided to hide in the over-head locker and close the lid. The first -class stewardess knew he was in there. When the Captain came on board, she gave him a cup of tea whilst he did his preflight checks. She pretended she needed help opening the over-head locker, so the skipper obliged. As he did so an arm appeared from above to shake his hand accompanied by the immortal words “Hello sir, my name his John Smith, I am your purser on this trip”. At which point the skipper threw his tea in the air and called him names that sounded nothing like John Smith.

The captain was so shaken the first officer had to fly the aeroplane.

This was the start of the funniest 2-week trip of my whole life. At any given moment our Purser would invent the most hilarious tricks to play on the crew. It was non-stop. I had permanent face-ache from laughing so much.

I clearly remember one of the girls laying on her back on a first-class trolley, eyes closed, covered in paper napkins splashed with tomato ketchup, holding a knife as if sticking out of her stomach. He then pushed her through all the cabins. The passenger’s shocked faces immediately turned into tear-stained laughter. They loved every one of his antics.

The crew was the happiest bunch I ever met and fell over themselves to give great customer service. 

We came home to a suitcase full of complimentary letters, even if the management wasn’t best pleased, but it’s a good job they didn’t know everything!  Those letters made it clear that we had achieved an excellent standard of customer satisfaction to the point of customer loyalty.

I learnt a lot from that trip. I learnt that those afraid of flying felt a whole lot better when they laughed. I learnt that the crew worked as the perfect dream team when happy.  I learnt that flight delays and missed connections became insignificant when fun was on the agenda.

I now understand the psychology and neuroscience behind all this and enjoy explaining it to companies and organisations. That said, we are all guilty of taking our businesses and ourselves too seriously. It’s far more profitable to lighten up a little and enjoy what we do.  

So that is my little story. Now let’s look at some neuroscience and some really interesting updates. 

Some Neuroscience

Humour and laughter often happen due to the unexpected, the novel.

Laughter does not rely upon cognition, but our cognitive functions do modify our willingness to laugh.

Apparently, laughter is not a learned behaviour, but is thought to be part of an engagement system that signals a mood and aids social bonding.

If we are afraid or hungry, we do not have the desire to be playful, therefore playfulness happens when we feel safe and supported.

1.    Problem Solving - one researcher suggests that humour is a problem-solving task, which is an executive function. We have to realise there is something incongruous going on – such as the surprise between the joke and the punchline. And then we have to have worked out how this fits, how it makes sense. We reappraise a situation hence we think creatively, we solve problems.  So we are using working memory, verbal extraction, mental shifting and executive functions in the frontal lobe. (Shammi and Stuss 1999)

2.    Social interactions - equally, the medial prefrontal cortex has been highlighted to be involved in humour as it helps us respond appropriately to social interactions. And the temporal lobe is also involved which recognises and identifies complex stimuli.

3.    Dopamine - humour puts the brain in a very positive state through the dopamine pathway. Dopamine is the chemical for not only reward, but also for interest. For instance, when something new, unexpected or novel happens the orbito- frontal cortex is activated. Dopamine and adrenaline are secreted when the brain finds something humourus or expecting something rewarding.

4.    Oxytocin - if we share humour and laugh at something together, we will also get a surge of oxytocin (the bonding chemical) albeit in small secretions, but nevertheless, sharing a situation, bonds people and helps them relax together… even if you disagree, it makes life a lot more pleasant and stops fuelling the fire of negativity.