Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. TV comedian/pianist Victor Borge used to say that laughter is the shortest distance between two people. Laughing together brings people closer. That’s because laughter is a shared experience, and laughter truly is infectious. When you see someone laughing, it brings a smile to your face, and you want to laugh, too.
In addition to the social and psychological effects of laughter, there are also major physical effects. After a good belly laugh, the body produces endorphins. Your pulse rate drops, your muscles relax, and your internal organs, including your brain, are stimulated, making them work better.
What does all this have to do with safety training? Training experts agree that working humor into a training presentation and getting trainees laughing can make them more relaxed, attentive, receptive, and willing to participate. Laughter also promotes team spirit and makes your training group more cohesive, cooperative, and interactive. And that can improve the quality and effectiveness of your training.
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Overdo it, though, and you’ll be laughing alone. Or worse, trainees will be laughing at you. To introduce just the right amount and right kind of humor into your training sessions, remember these do’s and don’ts:
Do:
- What feels comfortable to you. Trying to be someone you’re not, probably won’t work, and could just end up making everyone uncomfortable.
- Try to relate humor to the topic of the training and to what’s going on during the session.
- Make sure humor is appropriate. That means clean, nonsexist, etc., and appropriate to the particular training group. For example, telling office-related humorous stories or jokes to a group of production workers could fall flat.
- Use humor at the right time and in the right amount. Some laughter and fun is very good. But if trainees are laughing all the time, they may not actually be learning enough.
- Use self-deprecating humor whenever possible. For example, if you’re illustrating a safety point with a story about a hypothetical employee who is acting carelessly, give the employee your own name. Or if you make a mistake during your presentation, acknowledge it with a joke. Making fun of yourself makes you "human" and helps build trust.
- Work laughter in at key points during the presentation—for instance, to introduce a new point, to wake up a drowsy audience, or to refocus the attention of a restless audience.
- Use exaggeration and silliness when appropriate (and if you’re comfortable with it) to perk things up and get people laughing. Some trainers bring along rubber chickens or silly hats. Others ask multiple-choice questions, with one of the choices being obviously silly or bizarre.
- Give trainees a chance to adjust if you’re using humor in your presentations for the first time. They might not react the way you want them to at first. They might think that they’re not supposed to laugh in a training session, or they might not have seen your lighter side before.
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In tomorrow’s Advisor, we’ll go over the “don’ts” of using laughter in safety training—plus explore an exciting tool that provides effective training in bite-sized portions.