Leading American neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran sees a stong link between creativity and humor so much so that he believes that humor should be formally taught in school. In one of his free Alfred Deakin Innovation Lectures, he commented "You wouldn't think you'd normally have jokes and humor as part of school syllabus, but I think they're very important because they teach people how to be creative, " he said , "Jokes involve juxtaposing seemingly unrelated ideas, seeing something from a novel vantage point, and that's the basis of all creativity."
Chris Robert, assistant professor of management in MU's Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business, said that humor - particularly joking around about things associated with the job - actually has a positive impact in the workplace.
Kodak developed a "humor room" where employees can escape the pressures of their work. The room is lined with pictures of such notables as Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx, not founder George Eastman. There is a toy store with toys, such as "boss dolls" with which employees can, well, have little chats that most likely wouldn't occur during a standard work day. In addition, there is a high-tech area where computers, loaded with creative software, encourage employees to work on new ideas as well as play games.
A study by Cornell University found that people, who had just seen a funny movie, increased their creative flexibility and were better able to find creative solutions to puzzling problems.
A study by the Business Council of Australia -2003- found that 'fun' was one of the key elements of extraordinary, productive and creative workplaces. Workplaces which achieved outstanding performance are filled with laughter and humor.
Dr. David Abramis at Cal State Long Beach has studied fun at work for years. He's discovered that people who have fun on the job are more creative, more productive, better decision makers, and get along better with co-workers. They also have fewer absentee, late, and sick days than people who aren't having fun.
"Humor and its partner, laughter, activate
physiological systems including the muscular, respiratory, cardiovascular
and skeletal," says Steven M. Sultanoff, Ph.D, a pschologist and past
president of the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor.
Humor that works in the workplace has to do with attitude. It means seeing
the humor in everyday situations. It means taking everything and everyone
not quite so seriously. It means having the confidence to laugh at yourself.
A report released from the University of Maryland
Medical Center found laughter makes blood vessels function better, causing
the tissue that lines the vessels to expand, increasing blood flow.
