1.   There
2.   Is
3.   Really
4.   No
5.   Test
6.   Today
7.   April
8.   Fools
9.   Ha
10. Ha
11.  Ha
12.  Ha

She  had the kids giggling at #5.   What a great teacher!

What I love is that this awesome teacher definitely had as much fun as her kids did.   She took the lead in CREATING fun and joy in her work day.   She had fun… and because her kids had fun she is a better teacher.

My point:  having fun at work makes you better at work.  Just ask my kid’s teacher.

Do you need a funny speaker for your meeting (and want to skip the spelling test?)   Contact me here!

Brad Montgomery
Humor at Work Expert, Meeting Energizer, Fan of Funny Teachers

PS.   She also gave them a Word Search in which none of words to be found were actually in the letter grid.  Brilliant!

NYC – Teaching Nurses the Value of Big, Red Noses – NYTimes.com.

Perhaps students were wondering, “How can you be light-hearted in a serious profession like this?” Mr. Christensen said. In fact, he said, “you can carry your sense of joy and light into the workplace.” Nurses need their spirits to be high. For sure, patients do.

If you are interested in the use of humor with health care, as I am, you should check out this article.

The science is becoming clearer every day: happy people are healthier, are more engaged, more creative and more productive. Whether you’re in a traditional high stress job like nursing and health care, or even a supposed lower stress job (Is there one? Tell me…we all want it!) invest the time in learning to take yourself less seriously.

Need a professional funny motivational speaker to help you find the levity through a funny keynote speech? Go to the contact page now.

Cheers,

Brad Montgomery
Heath Care Speaker, Humor in the Workplace Expert, Fan of Levity!

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This group came up with a killer idea:  Vent Tickets.   The problem they — and most offices — have is that often whiners and complainers get way too much attention and end up sucking up way too much energy.  Sometime the complaints are valid.  Often they are just a bunch of hot air.   What to do?

Answer:  Vent tickets.

Check out their explanation to me about how they are incorporating this Humor In the Workplace strategy:

We made little tickets that have an angry face on the front and it says VENT TICKET, then on the back we have the rules, and they are as follows:

The PURPOSE of this ticket is to release negativity in the work place!

How It Is Used:

You will receive 5 tickets per week and you may use it at any time, with any co-worker, including your supervisor.

You will then have 10 minutes of the recipients undivided attention to let out all frustration, whining, and complaining.

Once you have redeemed your ticket, the issue will no longer be discussed with the same or different co-workers and the negativity will be gone!!!

We are starting out with 5 tickets per person a week and will gradually decrease the amount of tickets each person gets per week.  We are very excited about this new process and hopefully it will decrease some of the negativity in the office, which tends to happen when you have 7 women working in one small space.

I love so many things about this technique:

1.  It is a positive way to deal with negative people.
2.  It is playful.
3.  They know that it will take a while to work… and that a successful adoption of this concept into their work culture will take a while.  It won’t happen overnight.   But if they continue to push, eventually it will be a ritual and tradition that their folks will not allow them to drop.

I love the fact that you can look one of your co-workers in the eye as they launch into some complaining or whining or just plain being negative and say, “Oh, let me interrupt.  I’ll need to see your ticket before you go on.”    It is a fun and funny way to gently remind your peers that they are bringing you down.

I love that the very existance of the tickets will lessen the need for the tickets at all.

And I love that this awesome group not only had a great idea, they acted on it.

I’m impressed. and I’m thrilled.

Does your organization need some humor in the workplace strategies?  Think a visit from a humorist motivational speaker is your ticket?  Contact me here.

Cheers and Congrats!

Brad Montgomery
Humorist Motivational Speaker, Facilitator, Proud Owner of Vent Tickets

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Does your group need to find and create strategies for humor in your workplace?  Think a really motivational speaker is your ticket?  Contact me here.

Please comment and help me (us!) understand how you would use this idea.

Let me know what you think and if you have any other ideas or thoughts!

What amazes me is how United Airlines and the other struggling airlines are the only ones NOT learning from Southwest.

Corporate espionage would never be so easy:  United should put a single employee on a Southwest flight, have them notice how the fun attitude of the employees translates to customer satisfaction, and then…. copy them!   No cloak and daggers needed.   It’s not even stealing.  It’s just common sense.

I was just on an United flight and was chatting with a flight attendant about the safety announcements, and whether she thought humor was appropriate.  I’m not at all sure what the “official” policy is, but her understanding of it is that fun is NOT encouraged… or allowed.  And she shared some anecdotal evidence about her UAL peers getting chewed out for trying to make the safety demonstration fun.   Hmmph.   Oh, and guess how her morale was?   Yeah, lousy.

She is a nice woman, but her loyalty to her employer and her customers ends at her paycheck.

I live in Colorado… and as it is a hub for United I fly them a lot.  An awful lot.  An AWFUL lot.  I’m stuck with them.   But I don’t like them.   It’s clear to me that their employee morale is rock bottom.   They are worried for their jobs and future.  They don’t feel like the carrier is on their side.  And their employee dissatisfaction comes through loud and clear to folks like me.  Their customers.  I have dozens of stories about how United could have easily earned my loyalty but instead made my life harder. It’s too bad.  Especially because it doesn’t have to be that way.

They need — to be frank — me.   Bad.  Really bad.  But they’ll never hire me to talk to their staff with ideas about how to connect enjoyment of their jobs to creating an outstanding airline.    They haven’t noticed that the ONLY thing that sets them apart from their competitors is their people.  And their people are unhappy.  Very unhappy.   Just ask that flight attendent.

I don’t hold out much hope for United Airlines.  But maybe it isn’t too late for your organization.

Does YOUR company need to invest in your people’s quality of (work) life?  Do you agree that NOW is the time to make sure they are at their best, because you simply cannot afford a staff that isn’t fully on board?

[Hey United Airlines! Honestly, you need to hire me, like, yesterday.   Give me a buzz and I'll help your folks which will help you.  Guaranteed.   Come on, I dare you!]

Go to the contact page and let’s talk about how to ramp up your groups attitudes and loyalty, and how that will create a great impact on your bottom line.

Now, for a contrast… check out what the wacky and  successful Southwest Airlines is doing on board with their customers. Do these customers look happier than those you’ve seen on any UAL flight recently. You betcha. That, my friends, is what you call “a hint.”

Do you need to ramp up the attitude in your organization? You don’t even need to sing.  Contact us now! Go to the contact page.

Do me a favor? If you liked this article, Digg it for me right here:

Digg it!

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humor in the Workplace Expert, Funny-ist

Related:
Brad’s Take on the Pike’s Place Fish Market
Hooked on Humor Audio Subscription Program
Laugh-O-Nomics: Brad’s Motivational Humor in the Workplace Breakout Seminar

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In this photo, Craig looks like he is a little bit cazy, a little bit sick — and a little bit scared.   I’m totally jealous of him.  Here’s what he said about this flight:  

In Sept. I had a chance to go on a parabolic flight to experience weightlessness – the same type of flights that NASA uses to train astronauts for weightlessness.  This week, I finally received the photos and videos from the event.  Attached is one of the better photos of me being “weightless”. 

The weightless flight was a deal for science and math teachers sponsored by Northrop Grumman (a CA defense contractor).  Their goal is to inspire teachers who can then inspire students to pursue math and science…and turn into nice little engineers working for defense contractors.  Anyway, I applied in the spring and found out in August that I’d been selected.  We
got together in early Sept to design some experiments showing the effects of weightless.  The flight was on Sept 18.  It was basically an all-day event, but the flight was only 90 minutes.  We flew out of San Jose over the Pacific Ocean.  Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, the plane started doing these crazy roller-coaster-like hills – climbing at a 50-degree angle then putting the engines in neutral and letting Earth’s gravity pull us through a parabola.  We did that 15 times and got about 20 seconds of weightlessness each time.    It was a phenomenal experience!

My teammates and I had planned only 4  experiments we wanted to perform, thinking that it would take a while to get acclimated and to collect our wits.  I never collected my wits!  Every time we went into freefall, I got giddy and could barely concentrate on what we were doing.  It was such a different sensation than I had imagined.  We did get our experiments completed but the video I took was a complete waste - fingers in the way, pictures of feet, backs, floors, ceilings – everything but the experiments.  Luckily, the company had a professional photographer and mounted video cameras so we got some great footage from them.  As I said
before, if I needed another reason to be a science teacher, that was it.

My students all got 2 days of weightlessness discussion – 1 the day after the flight and another when the videos came in.  I also got to keep the flightsuit so I wore that both days to school and on Halloween.

What is “Humor in the Workplace”? No, I’m not talking about the time your colleague fell asleep at his desk and went to the staff meeting with keyboard impressions on his face……..though that is funny – post it and we’ll put it in. I’m looking for the latest blog posts about:

• Office Humor. What you’ve seen or experienced AND how that experience has effected your work culture;
• Office Pranks and Gags. What you’ve seen or experienced, and what the effect is on your work culture;
• Techniques and ideas for those wanting to incorporate more humor at work;
• Examples of the worst possible work culture and how that culture needs a sense of humor;
• Anything else you think is related to Humor in the Workplace. If you are able to connect fun and work, it will be considered for this Carnival.
• Examples of humor with management and leadership in the office setting.

What is a Blog Carnival? As defined by Wikipedia, “A blog carnival is a type of blog event. It is similar to a magazine, in that it is dedicated to a particular topic, and is published on a regular schedule, often weekly or monthly. Each edition of a blog carnival is in the form of a blog article that contains permalinks to other blog articles on the particular topic.

Blog carnivals are a great way for bloggers to recognize each other’s efforts, organize blog posts around important topics, and improve the overall level of conversation in the blogosphere. They also serve as a place to connect with those who are expert (or at least highly opinionated!) and those who are interested in that field.

Why participate in a blog carnival? Simple.

First of all, it’s cool to have a single clearinghouse for related articles about Humor in the Workplace. And this carnival will help others find you. In addition, you’ll get backlinks (incoming links to your blog). The more backlinks your blog has, the higher rating in search engines. Plus it’s just fun!

How to participate? Submit your posts by clicking here or via the “Humor in the Workplace Blog Carnival” submission box below or email a link to your blog post. All we ask is that you link back to this carnival on your blog – I’ve got a super-cool button coming soon!

Thanks for playing! Now let’s have some fun!

As you know (unless you’ve lived in a cave) the Fish Market is famous for a fun atmosphere  — and for turning that fun atmosphere into a healthy profit.  Tourists and customers gather to watch the fun as the fish mongers literally throw fish, laugh and joke with customers, and generally enjoy their work. The result for the fish market is more than fun and smiles:  it’s a thriving business.  A world-famous thriving business.   It’s a totally cool place with a totally cool concept.  (Hey Mom!  I used “totally cool” twice!)    It’s also been beaten like a dead horse.  Ok already!  Throwing fish is fun.

It’s been the inspiration for many a motivational speaker, a series of motivational videos, courses and other products.  If I had a nickel for every time I’ve been asked, “Brad, have you heard about the Fish Philosophy?” … I’d have…. well, a couple of bucks at least.  

If the thought of reading a blog post about the fish market makes you want to hurl, stick with me….I’m headed somewhere.

Watching the “show” at the market reminded me that a fun workplace doesn’t require funny people.  You don’t have to be a funny, joke telling manager or leader to create a pleasant work environment.  At the Market, I didn’t see a single comedian.  I didn’t hear a single joke.  

What I did see was a staff that had been empowered to be (and have) fun at work. 

Fun without funny?

Tossing a fish is not funny.  Can you imagine tossing an albacore in your workplace and getting a laugh?  (My guess is that you’d get a quick visit from HR.    “Hey everybody, Janeen is just threw a grouper at me!”)

So what was so fun about the fish market if it wasn’t flying fish? In a word, the fun was in the work culture.  They are having so much fun it is infectious. 

My point?  This fish market encourages it’s employees to have fun.  It makes it safe for them to have fun.  And it rewards them for having fun.  

Nobody is required to be funny…yet the laughter and smiles are ever present.  (It’s important to mention that in addition to laughs and smiles, the Market is well known for customer service, quality product and a staff that is willing to make every shopping experience a positive experience.) 

If you want your work culture to be more fun and funny, remember that you don’t have to be funny yourself.  You just have to do your part to encourage others to be fun. 

Throwing fish not required.

Cheers,

Brad Montgomery
Washington Motivational Speaker, Fish Thrower*

* Ok, not really.  I’ve honestly never  thown a fish.  A small rabbit** perhaps, but never a fish.

**Yes, I’m kidding.  (Rabbits wiggle too much to really get a good spiral.***)

***I’m joking again.  It’s a bad habit.  But hey, it’s my job.

****Are you looking for the site above where there was “****” There isn’t one. This footnote is just a little added bonus joke. Ha ha. Get it? Ok, me neither.

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I just read (belatedly…. It’s been busy) an article about the golfers in the The Ryder Cup.

One US player, Anthony Kim, had everyone on the US team laughing.“He’s a funny guy,” said Paul Azinger, the USA team captain.

And then, after a 9 year drought, the USA team beat the Europeans.

The Rocky Mountain News reported that usually it’s the European team laughing it up, teasing each other, and generally keeping the tone light.   This year, it was the American team.

What’s my point?  You have to be relaxed to play golf well.  And laughter is a great way to relax.  (And its safer than Valium.)

Could humor have been the deciding factor in the Ryder Cup? Almost certainly.

Sure, skill is important.  Sure, confidence and other mental factors enter into the equation.  But in this case, it looks like laughter might have been the not-so-secret weapon.

Hey golfers!  Next time you’re thinking about buying that $300 driver or the $400 putter?  Perhaps your money would be better spent buying some audio recordings of your favorite funny speakers or comedians.

Hey kids….why not listen to me?

(Yes, I’d love you to buy my CD.   I’ll use 100% of the proceeds earned from the sale of my funny keynote recording to buy a some new golf balls.  Mine are at the bottom of the lake.   I had a very tense day – apparently unable to follow my own advice.)

As part of my motivational speech, I had a joke relating to how we need to sometimes actively do things to make our lives fun. I talked about “Getting On Board” and also “Riding the Pony.” It was a metaphor. A joke.

My new friend Sergeant Bamburg was in the audience and he has taken that joke to heart.He has clearly “gotten on board.” He has sent me photos of him riding a pony outside of a store (the 1¢ machine pony) and now check out his latest letter and photo.

The fun never dies. We recently had our AFSA Division convention in Las Vegas, NV. I couldn’t resist bringing along a friends stick

Brad — The fun never dies. We recently had our AFSA Division convention in Las Vegas, NV. I couldn’t resist bringing along a friends stick pony. Yes, they even allowed it on the plane. The photo is of our chapter’s NCO nominee, MSgt Bryan Dean, and one of the 11th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, CMSgt (ret) Dave Campanale. I tried to get Bryan to hold the pony and we he refused, the Chief grabbed it from me and said he’d do it. “How Cool is That” What was even better is the pony made horse sounds when you pressed its ear. — DAVID A. BAMBURG, GS-05, USAF

He gets it. He is having fun, because he is MAKING his life fun. He is doing wacky stuff, and the result can be seen in the smile on his face. What are you doing to Get On Board? What are YOU doing to actively create fun?

Thanks David. Ride that pony!

Looking for a military speaker or a motivational speaker for your military event? I hope you’ll consider me.

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Why? There were several reasons. I really enjoyed that I got a tour of the Mayo campus from two of the top financial guys. They really helped me to understand the culture that makes their workplace unique. In addition, I got to share a couple of meals with Mayo meeting planners. Again, this time with them really helped me to connect with them and with the Clinic.

And they are great people. They taught me all about the importance of high school hockey, about the freezing winters and best of all, gave me some terrific tips for making Hot Dish. (Ahh…. the Minnesota favorite! Yum.)

It was a fun job: I was working for one of the most famous health care organizations in the world, but they didn’t want me for my experience as a health care speaker. They wanted me for my experience as a finance speaker; I was hired to speak for 1300 folks from their finance department.
The room where I spoke was beautiful. And I mean beautiful. It was open and spacious while at the same time cozy. And the huge cool banners of the Mayo founders was a fun touch. I know, it’s small, but speaking in a nice venue helps make my job easy.

What else? The audio visual stuff was perfect. This may sound like a small thing, but it isn’t. Having excellent lights and sound help make the speech a success in ways the audience will never understand. It’s crucial…and in Rochester it was perfect.

In addition, my brother was with me. He was working in Minnesota and managed to swing his business trip around my road trip. He was there at the speeches with me which was very cool. Hanging with the big brother? How Cool Is That?!

Mostly though, I’d have to end where I started. The people I worked with were first class, and I was proud as punch to be part of the Mayo team, even if only for the day.

Thanks Ted, Leslie, Mort and the rest of the Mayo Finance gang!

Cheers.

Brad

PS. Yup, I agree that it’s the can of soup that makes that Hot Dish sizzle. Making some tonight!

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Lucky me! I got the job. We were there for a half-day seminar and keynote, and we had a ball.

[Link to my post about the trip to this New Mexico College.]

Are you looking for a motivational speaker, keynote, seminar or humor in the workplace expert for your group? Wondering how you can tell if they can fit your specific needs?

Check out these testimonials for more info. My hope is that you’ll think I’m a good fit and you’ll give me a buzz. Link. In-Service Speaker? Pick me!

It was a total blast. There were many highlights, but let’s go over a few:

This group started of ticked off that there was no coffee service in the morning. Ok, that was a bummer. But it became really funny because I teased them about it. And teased some more. Sure, it was a bummer to miss our coffee, but it was hardly the end of the world. We joked about it. We started laughing. A kind woman from the food service staff got me a cup of coffee. I gave it to Reid, a fun guy from the audience to pass out little “sips” to the people suffering the most from caffeine deficiency. It was a small thing that turned out great. And very, VERY funny.
I often teach people to lighten up their business meetings by putting out toys for the attendees to fiddle and fidget with. San Juan didn’t need me to tell them this…they had pipe cleaners and Play Doh on every table, plus some other toys. Check out some of these photos of some of the coolest creations.

But perhaps the biggest highlight came from the creative people in this San Juan College Audience. They were tasked with coming up with techniques or tactics they would actually implement to make their office life more fun. They were challenged to come up with “to do” lists of what they personally would do differently based on our time together. Check out this awesome list of Humor in the Workplace ideas:

• Give candies to people who make you laugh. ( Keep ‘em in your desk and give them away as reward.)

• Change ring tone on other people’s phone. The folks at San Juan College are able to set their own ring tones on their office phones. Some man snuck to a woman’s phone, and recored his own voice saying, “Are you there? Are you there?” This was her new ring tone!

• Artificial cheese “to go with your whine.” I LOVE this idea. They had some fake cheese they got at a craft shop (what in the heck anybody really needs fake cheese for I’ll never know) and they ceremoniously gave the cheese away to anybody who whines. This is wonderful.

• Create and use nicknames for co-workers. Loving and fun nicknames can make people feel good and push up the joy-quotient.

• Throw stress balls when at people who start to get to negative.

• Hit negative co-workers with a foam sword.

• Give a toy bomb to somebody who is “Da Bomb.”

• Send memos via air mail. (Fold them into paper airplane.)

• Throw marshmellows at co-workers for “no good reason.” I’d love to see the janitorial staff after a day of marshmallow fun!

• Give “mini-sized” box of Frosted Flakes to co-worker with note, “You are Great!”

• Combat grumpy people with love and kindness. (Wow…what a deep and wonderful idea.)

• Make prank phone calls to co-workers.

• Silly String At Work. (I’m tellin’ ya… I’ve done this. Silly String is cheap, cleans up easy, and is absolutely fun. You can NOT be miserable if you are spraying Silly String! Or having it sprayed at you. It’s a no brainer…go buy some now.)

• Change a co-workers screen saver. (How creative can you get? What could you do to make this really funny?)

• Make a contest that whoever whines the most has to buy the monthly lunch your team shares.

• Contest: the most whiny person has to take take the minutes at the next boring meeting.

• Use tape loops to tape your workmate’s telephone receiver to their phone. (So when they try to answer the phone they can’t “pick up.”
• Put a small piece of tape over the laser on the bottom of somebody’s mouse. It will simulate a broken mouse. (I love this idea because it is a totally victimless practical joke or prank.)
• Change the height of a workmate’s desk chair. Do this one time and it’s funny. Do this twelve times over the course of two weeks, it’s hilarious.

Hey San Juan! I dare you… Let Me Know What YOUR Highlight Was! Use the comment field to tell me about your “Ah Ha” for the day. I dare ya!

Thanks so much for having me. You make me feel like the luckiest motivational speaker ever!

Brad

PS. Learn more about the seminars I did for San Juan here.

I get a lot of calls like this.

“No sweat, Mr. President!” So we talked about some specific tactics and techniques he could use as a manager to help get his folks out of the “funk” and back into the groove.

It’s my job.  I help leaders who need to give their people a push start. Who need to rev up the fun so they can rev up the productivity. I speak to groups who are dealing with Change … and for now, so does President Bush.
It was a pleasure getting a call from the leader of the free world.

But after four hours, I made him hang up and get back to promoting democracy. I mean, procrastination is great, but even the President has to work now and then.

Thanks President Bush. If you need more help with a humor in the workplace keynote or seminar, feel free to contact me.

Cheers.

Brad

PS. Thanks to comicstripgenerator.com for the cool graphic. Does your newsletter or website need some spicing up? Think you could use some more humor in your job but don’t know how? Give this free service a try!

PPS. Do YOU have any cool resources for punching up the fun? Any weblinks I should know about? Share your best ideas in a comment!

Read on:

“As I was “riding the pony” into work this morning, I was reflecting on the wonderful motivational presentation you delivered to our Health team last Thursday Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Kayla and I have received so many nice compliments on the day, and it was due to you. You were “spot on” in your performance and the details on our organization, and staff and certainly gave the attendees the opportunity to look at things from a different perspective.

With the Packer loss this season I’m am sure that it is difficult for many of our staff to avoid being caught in the swirling vortex of negativity, but I think they are doing a good job of trying to “ride the pony” today.

Brad, it was a pleasure working with you and getting to know you. Thanks for making our celebration event a success.

Sincerely,

L

Aw Shucks! Thanks! I loved speaking in Wisconsin! Thanks for having me!

Looking for a Wisconsin motivational speaker? Healthcare speaker? Just need somebody to move your team forward — and out of the murk?

Learn more here.

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A while back I worked for a hardworking team at Arcadis US.

My job was to help this small team  – there were only 12 of us – find specific ideas to take themselves less seriously at work, find ways to incorporate more levity into their work relationships and basically boost up the fun quotient at work.

What I love most about these facilitated session with smaller groups like this one is that I get to do more leading and less talking.  Generally the best ideas come from them.  And this group was awesome in that they did come up with some great, specific and killer ideas about how to find and incorporate more humor in the workplace.

So what, you might ask, were their great ideas?

To name a few:

They decided to create a wandering kaleidoscope.  Because of the way kaleidoscopes help us see life with a different perspective, their plan was to pass this kaleidoscope to people who needed a gentle reminder to lighten up. (Way better than a slap in the face, eh?)

This department also had a huge white board, and based on our time together, they committed to use the white board to celebrate each other as well as to create some fun.   They adapted one of our creativity exercises into a white board project. 

As a team, they committed to “write” a story one word at a time.  One person would start it with one word, and then leave the board.  The next person to walk buy would add the second word, etc.    This team building activity seems way more cool  – and workable – then falling backwards into a team-members waiting hands.

And finally, the committed to pick a single song as their Marketing and Communications anthem.  They would use that song to “push” each other into more cooperative moods and to generally remind each other of their mutual desire to make work fun.

But I think the coolest outcome from this Aracadis team was non-specific.  Together we spent three hours brainstorming ways to be more glad at work.   Ways to make our time in the office more fun.  And when they saw how badly tghe reset of the team wanted what they wanted – to enjoy work more – they felt better about themselves and their relationships to each other and to their jobs.

As for me, don’t get me wrong, I love working with large groups.  But there is something very cool about taking a small team and moving them closer to a happy, mellow, and respectful work environment.

Thanks Aracdis!

Think your team could benefit from a very funny motivational speaker who also happens to facilitate team building events?  Hire me.  Go to the contact page. 

Brad Montgomery
Colorado Speaker, Humor in the Workplace Expert, Fan of Arcadis US

First of all…this is a big order. It was a room full of very educated, very busy, very motivated people. They did NOT want their time wasted.

Second, I was thrilled. Getting more time with a group enables me to facilitate a transfer of ideas. Sure, I’ve got a TON of ideas about how to inject more humor into their leadership style and into their workplace in general. But what good are my ideas if they don’t embrace them.

Third, I learned not to joke about “Blackberries” in a room filled with “Windows Mobile Powered Smartphones.” Seriously. I’m not kidding. Don’t even use the word. : )

The day was a success.

Why? I think there are several reasons for the success of the day. In no particular order:

• These managers committed to the idea of working to make their jobs more fun. They wanted to make work more joyful, and were willing to take it seriously. (Now there’s an odd sentence.)

• They were willing to learn from each other. Most of the ideas we ended up with were best practices from different managers at that meeting. No individual in the room had all the answers — including me. But as a group, we had some serious horse power.

• They needed it. They have had some trouble with some internal tools that haven’t been working as well as they would like, and the past six months have been more stressful than they deserve. So investing some time to inject some new creativity, positive attitudes and humor into this group was a welcome lift.

• Finally, it might sound small, the the room set up was great. My contact at Microsoft took the time to set the room right, seat the people correctly, and generally work to get the most bang from the buck from this event. It helps more than you’d think.

Ok, so what HUMOR TIPS did they come up with? Glad you asked.

Here are the groups’ TOP ideas for leading the way to humor at Microsoft (as selected by the groups themselves.)

1. Create a humor ritual of a “You Rock” rock. (This is a rock that moves from person to person. People “earn” the rock by doing something extraordinary at work.) Of course, Microsoft being Microsoft was eager to make the rock virtual. What a crack up.

2. Create a CFO — Chief Fun Officer in your team. That person is in charge of making meetings more fun by bringing toys, coming up with cool creativity exercises etc. One specific example is to buy a bunch of those Easter peeps. (Those horrible yellow marshmallow chicks.) We had made jokes earlier about the slang word for friends: peeps. So one idea would be to award PAM Peeps for excellent participation at meetings (Partner Account Manager Peeps.). Somebody makes a positive contribution to the meeting, and you toss them a Peep and welcome them to the team.

3. Put pictures of celebrities over your photo on your name badge. For example, paste a photo of Julia Roberts (cut from a magazine) over your own photo. See how long it takes for people to notice.

4. For smaller groups, take a Walking Meeting. Two or three people walking can create a special and positive energy that remains elusive in a conference room.

5. Have rubber rats available at meetings. When anybody at the meeting feels the discussion going down a dead end, or “rat hole,” anybody is encouraged to toss a rubber rat on the table. This is a fun way to keep the meeting on track. (And is WAY less negative than “whining” about the off-topic trend.) My group at the Dallas meeting loved this idea. When we broke it down, they decided that these silly and simple rats would:
- Inject humor into meetings.
- Help keep meetings on track
- Replace complaining
- And —most importantly — increase productivity. Wow…that’s a lot for a toy. Way to go PAMs!

I did your homework for you, Microsoft. Here is a link to some cheap rats! $1 for four rats! Get a few dozen!

6. Conference Call humor. There were two ideas for conference calls. The first idea is to “sign in” as an alias. For example, when you are prompted to give your name, give an alias. Brad Pitt. Bill Gates. Etc.

I had an idea that would be funnier…and more outrageous. If you’re a Microsoft manager, I dare you to sign in as Steve Jobs, or Michael Dell. I dare ya!

7. Conference call humor #2. The second idea was to create some sort of team building exercise for the people attending the conference. (I suspect this would work in smaller groups well, and that you might have to experiment with larger groups.) One idea was to start a song, and have different people take a verse. ie: John sings the first verse, Sally sings the second. I think a safe idea (read that: more likely for people to actually do) would be to tell a story one word at a time. If there are 6 people on the call, you’d say every 6th word. It might go like this:

First person: “Once”
Second Person: Upon
Third Person: “A”
Fourth Person: “Time”
Fifth person: “A girl”
Sixth person: “hated”
First Person: “Powerpoint”
Second Person: “Luckily”
Third Person: “She”
…and so on and so on.

8. Word Substitution Game. Need something to spice up a meeting? Choose a key word (or seven) and substitute wacky words for them. For example, instead of saying “PEG LIST” (or whatever it is you’re meeting about) you would instead say, “cauliflower.” Instead of “manager” you might use the word, “radiator.” This would keep people on their toes and increase the humor quotient.

9. Use Nick-Names at Meetings.

My audience at Microsoft laughed at an idea that…well…might get them fired. (I’m not even gonna write it up, but I can tell you that it was funny…very funny.)

The basic idea was that everybody creates a funny nick-name and is thereafter referred to by that name — at least during that meeting. Here is my much safer version of that game:

My Name is Dorfus Dottydunkin.

My 8 year old son LOVES Captain Underpants
(which is a very cool kids’ book). Heck, I love it too.
The following is excerpted from a children’s book, Captain Underpants
And the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants, by Dav Pilkey, in which
the evil Professor forces everyone to assume new names…

So:-

1. Use the second letter of your first name to determine your New
first name:

a = snickle
b = doombah
c = goober
d = cheesey
e = crusty
f = greasy
g = dumbo
h = farcus
i = dorky
j = doofus
k = funky
l = boobie
m = sleezy
n = sloopy
o = fluffy
p = stinky
q = slimy
r = dorfus
s = snooty
t = tootsie
u = dipsy
v = sneezy
w = liver
x = skippy
y = dinky
z = zippy

2. Use the second letter of your last name to determine the first Half
of your new last name:

a = dippin
b = feather
c = batty
d = burger
e = chicken
f = barffy
g = lizard
h = waffle
i = farkle
j = monkey
k = flippin
l = fricken
m = bubble
n = rhino
o = dotty
p = hamster
q = buckle
r = gizzard
s = lickin
t = snickle
u = chuckle
v = pickle
w = hubble
x = dingle
y = gorilla
z = girdle

3. Use the third letter of your last name to determine the second half
of your new last name:

a = butt
b = boob
c = face
d = nose
e = hump
f = breath
g = pants
h = shorts
i = lips
j = honker
k = head
l = tush
m = chunks
n = dunkin
o = brains
p = biscuits
q = toes
r = doodle
s = fanny
t = sniffer
u = sprinkles
v = frack
w = squirt
x = humperdinck
y = hiney
z = juice

Thus, for example, George W. Bush’s new name is: Crusty Chucklefanny.

My name is: Dorfus Dottydunkin

Microsoft! You folks were awesome. My one “take away” for you: in order to increase the humor (and attitude) at work, you DON’T have to be funny. You just have to lead the way to encourage positive humor to blossom.

I loved being on your team.

Thanks so much for bringing me into Texas.

Yours,

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humor Expert, Huge Fan of Microsoft Partner Account Managers!

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It was a really great experience. My favorite part? I had two favorite parts. The first was watching the group start from a DEAD stop and eventually move to a loud, excited, wiggly group. When they walked in and were told that they couldn’t sit with their friends, they would be doing some sort of interactivity, and generally listen to a “motivational speaker.” (Groan.) But after we made them laugh, did my motivational speech, and generally started to convince them that “this wasn’t going to suck” like they feared, we were off and running. It was cool to see that evolution.

My second favorite part was making CERTAIN that this day of humor and motivation lasted…that it translated into specific to do steps that would actually happen when they went back to work. I facilitated this part of the session…I did very little talking and let them come up with their ideas, their action plan, and their implementation plan. They elected to create a “how cool is that?!” board for each one of their centers…. a place where people could post compliments, good news, good luck, and other positive thoughts.

After the day I hadn’t even had a full cup of coffee and I felt high.

Check out this cool video of the humor in the workplace session here:

Think you might be interested in bring me in to speak to your group about humor, motivation, and then facilitating actual ACTION? Click here for more info.

The scenario: There’s this girl, let’s call her Mary. It’s Mary’s first day of work at a major media corporation where she’s working in a particularly well-known division of the company that has quite a reputation preceding it. She’s nervous to say the least, worried about entering into a group of workers who not only work well together, but also know each other. Will she fit in? Will they welcome her? Will they make her feel like she is intruding on an already efficient team? She worries about this and more as she enters the office and takes her seat at her cubicle.

Not an hour into her first workday and in walks Judy. She introduces herself, says what department she works in, ya know, the basics. Mary is cordial, smiles, even feels slightly at ease with Judy. Wanting to make small talk, Mary asks Judy about their boss, Mr. Richardson.

“So how’s Mr. Richardson as a boss? He seems nice.”

Judy responds:

“Yeah, he’s alright. But of course he seems nice to you, Mary. You’ve only been here an hour and we can all tell you want him.”

Mary, obviously shocked, says nothing and gives a frightened smile…

“I’m kidding, Mary! No, he’s fine. Come on, I’ll introduce you to everyone.” And so goes Mary’s first day.

This seems farcical, but it actually happened to a friend of mine. You might be thinking “What a way to break in the newbie,” but “Mary” assured me that after this little just-for-laughs joke she felt really comfortable with “Judy,” and so it got me thinking: what’s a great way to welcome the new employee? MAKE FUN OF THEM!

Of course I don’t mean berate your new co-worker with harsh put-downs and mean pranks (though fun, lighthearted pranks are OK), but I’ve always found that it reveals a level of comfort when someone can make-fun of you.

By now most of you know I like to joke around with and be sarcastic to my friends, just because I know it’s all in good fun and that they are going to do the same back to me. Joking around like this has to be understood as just good fun, a way to get the ball rolling or an effective way to get to know someone. That’s why it doesn’t hurt. Mary said once the ice had been broken, she knew that Judy and many of the other co-workers were excited to have someone new in the office and that weird tension that sometimes exists was immediately broken down.

So what can you say or do? Obviously, keep it easy. Don’t go for the jugular and think it’s going to be funny. Light sarcasm is a great tool with co-workers. Like when someone says “Ugh, I hate expense reports!” You can say “Really? Why? They are the reason I get up in the morning.”

Nicknames are fun too; nothing too mean though. A guy I know wore a pair of white jeans to work one day and now they all affectionately call him “White Pants.” Also, if you are so inclined, maybe make a funny office picture in Photoshop or something, complete with superimposed faces and funny captions, then send it along to co-workers and watch the chortles and snorts roll forth.

Get my drift? And this works on both sides, whether you’re breaking in the fresh meat or are the fresh meat yourself. But, word to the wise if you’re the new guy, first get a feel for your people before you go and poke fun at the girl with all the puppy pictures in her cubicle. You don’t want anyone taking you too serious right off the bat. She might be sensitive about those dogs. You’re just looking for ways to lighten up the environment so it’s easier for everyone to get to know one another. When that tension is released and everyone is more comfortable, people become more productive because they aren’t worrying what everyone is thinking of them. And, if you’re laughing at work, you’re having fun at work; and I don’t know about you, but I’d sacrifice a little dignity to get to that point.

So go ahead, give it a try next week. If you don’t have any new employees try it on someone you don’t really know. You never know what sort of new constructive relationship you’ll get.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker & Humorist

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I know an editorial assistant at ELLE magazine who reports how his boss, the Editor in Chief no less, handles meetings with grace and ease. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking: ELLE magazine, high fashion publication, snooty employees and an even snootier boss…it’s The Devil Wears Prada! However, let me reassure you, this is hardly the case. It’s not an ice-cold office environment with high heels and even higher upturned noses. In fact, my friend assures me it’s actually quite pleasant, and everyone, including Mrs. EIC, is a joy to work with.

Like I said, he cites weekly editorial meetings as an example as to why ELLE is a great working environment. You think these meetings are those types you see in movies: all the employees gathered round a table chatting and as soon as the boss walks in—stern faced as ever—everyone straightens up and shuts up like a class of first graders at the entrance of the teacher. But, as my friend explained to me about his first meeting at the magazine, it turned out that everyone was gabbing away before the meeting started, and when the boss walked in she actually joined in on all the chatter! In fact, not only that, but the first thing she said to her employees when she sat down was not something like “How are we doing on that Dolce & Gabbana spread?” but “Okay, WHO saw The Sopranos last night?!” What followed was an in-depth five-minute round-table discussion about the previous night’s episode, which eventually sort of effortlessly melded into the editorial meeting.

So what’s the point here, specifically for you manager types out there? People, especially co-workers, respond much more effectively to a comfortable meeting environment. If the Editor in Chief had walked in, sat down and immediately started drilling everyone about the progress of the magazine it very well could have ended up an unproductive and, dare I say, boring meeting. Instead, by kicking things off with some light-hearted conversation everyone sort of had their nerves calmed, making them ready to have a more casual but every bit as successful meeting. Once the tone was set, ideas were free to come forth and people weren’t shy to bring them up because their jaws were loosened by the pre-meeting gab-fest.

How can you as a boss or manager emulate this type of interaction? Well, first off, don’t be afraid to do exactly what the exemplary boss did: have an opening conversation. Ask how everyone’s doing, how their weekend was. Try and reference stories you’ve heard around the office. Was it someone’s birthday? Did they have a party? Ask how it went. Just try and get people talking. Solicit jokes, or, hey, tell your own. Just make sure that before you get to the nitty-grity business stuff your team is warmed up and ready to talk about it. If employees know their superior is comfortable enough to openly talk with them about, say, an HBO mob-family drama, they will, in turn, be comfortable enough to submit the idea that could be the next big company hit rather than hunker down in their chair and keep their intimidated ideas to themselves.

Check out my motivational speakers keynote here!

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humorist, Fan of Elle Magazine

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If I’ve learned anything from the infinite wisdom of Walt Disney, it’s that we all need to whistle while we work.

When do you find yourself the most productive? When you’re having fun, right? Now I know we can’t all have the ever-amusing, heart-pumping, excitement inducing thrill ride of, say, a professional stunt man. But, increased productivity and overall morale is easily increased by connecting work to fun and humor.

Ok… that’s obvious, right? Wrong. At least not to everybody. Not to most of working America.

I’m constantly amazed that the bulk of corporate America still doesn’t embrace humor in spite of all of the excellent examples of companies who have successfully incorporated a sense of playfulness to improve their bottom line.

There’s no better example of the effectiveness of combining humor and entertainment in the business world than in today’s advertisements. Sure the tug-at-the-heart-strings ads are still out there, sweet talking their way into making you buy that diamond pendent heart necklace, but more and more companies are giving in to their funny bones and creating commercials and print advertisements that make you laugh all the way to the BMW dealership to get that new 3-series.

Look at the business of Super Bowl advertising. A heavy majority of the commercials are really funny and shy away from taking themselves too seriously. The most popular beers out there—like Bud Light for instance—have been relying on comedic commercials for almost a decade and it’s obviously paid off in their increased consumption.

Furthermore, with the non-stop influx of viral videos, advertisers are diving into a whole new realm of usable material. Basically, corporate America is fascinated with videos from YouTube.com Consequently, they are trying to figure out how to monetize this craze. I’m sure we’ve all seen the “Bride Goes Crazy” video of the wife-to-be who has a breakdown on her wedding day because she hates her hairdo, which leads her to take some scissors to her scalp and lop off her locks. It turns out that this “reality” video is actually a staged video created by a hair care company to create a “buzz” for their products.

Or, how about Coca-Cola and Mentos jumping on the coke bottle fountain craze? My good friend Steve Spangler got creative with some household products and within months after its internet debut, two big name companies got a funny and entertaining way to sell their product. They totally embraced this creative, fun and humorous use for their products, and have adopted this humorous craze as part of their marketing plan.

I even mentioned BMW above, who also hopped on the viral video bandwagon and took what was a somewhat frightening video of an overly excited child on Christmas day and turned it into a great way to express how excited consumers would be if they bought their cars. See? If even a serious German car company can see the benefit of adding a touch of humor to their ad campaigns, what could you do if you embrace the humor with your business?

So what’s my point? If a lightened tone works in one business arena, why can’t it work in all of them? The fact that humor in advertising helps corporations to sell their products and services should encourage you to try to adopt humor in to other parts of YOUR business.

When you’re happy, you just feel better about doing things. That being the case, businesses shouldn’t be afraid to find concrete, creative ways to bring humor into the workplace not so it becomes a distraction, but motivation. Sure most companies organize employee getaways and the occasional office party. But what can you do with your job?

How about having your own Coke and Mentos fountain contest during the lunch hour? Or perhaps an office version of American Idol? How about more interactive and entertaining presentations and seminars? (Ok, I’m biased… but you could bring in a really funny motivational speaker to make them laugh until they cry.) I know I retain information much better when it can grab my attention. The possibilities are truly endless when it comes to finding a healthy and productive way to incorporate humor into the workplace. Those dwarves knew best; and, hey, they chipped rock for a living but still had a great time.

Hire Brad to Speak To Your Group! Hilarious Motivational Speaker

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Humorist Speaker, Humor in the Workplace Consultant, Fan of The Seven Dwarves

larger one

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And, all in all, that’s OK. Employee competition isn’t a bad thing: it’s motivating, it keeps employees on their toes, it can even make bonds between coworkers stronger. Think of it as a neighborhood game of flag football. As long as you don’t take it so serious it becomes debilitating, or not serious enough so that you slack off at work, workplace competition can be one of the most effective ways to be productive and increase office morale.

I’ve included the above video because, hey, it’s funny! And it shows a humorous side to office competition, which is how competition should be handled in the workplace—with a dose of funny. So how do we do that? How do we keep the pedal to the metal while making sure that we aren’t burning out our engines? Well, the first thing you gotta monitor is your outlook on the situation. Remember, it’s like a game! You want to make it fun! Not just for you, but for your competitors as well. You’re not looking to blaze to the top, leaving everyone burning in your wake. Rather you want to do as best you can while also helping and motivating other to do the same; and if they get there before, great! Give them a pat on the back and tell yourself that next time you’re going to cross the finish line first (hopefully with everyone else not far behind).

So, once you’ve got the right attitude, you’ve got to keep the competition itself on the fun side. Sure sure—actually trying to up sales might not be the most fun thing in the world. But, if you’re in the middle of a monthly sale push, take some time and actually have some fun office games! Organize a lunchtime activity that is strictly for fun but keeps everyone in the competitive mood. Office bowling is always fun, or maybe set up an office golf course! Really anything that will take the edge off of all the work that needs to be done.

And what is competition without awards? It’s OK to stick with the obvious ones—Most Total Sales, Biggest Single Sale, etc. But everyone loves superlatives, right? It reminds us all of the good ole days of high school! So think of stuff like “Best Sales Pitch” or “Best Sales Attitude,” or “Most Motivational.” And, remember what I said about making fun of your co-workers? How about “Best (or Worst) at Taking Rejection,” or “Worst Sales Pitch.” You get the idea. Just tailor them to your specific duties in the office.

It’s like I’ve always demonstrated: the happy workplace is the productive workplace, and nothing spurs productivity like competition, especially fun competition. It’s like a formula. Competition + Fun = BIG NUMBERS!!!! Jot that down on your notepad. You’ll want to save it for later.

Cheers. Check out my humor in the workplace seminars and keynote speeches here.

Brad Montgomery
Motvaional Keynote Speaker, Clean Comedian, and Competitive Worker

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In this shorter podcast, Karyn tells us how here 16 year old son (who is also a manager) used a sense of humor to solve a problem with an unhappy customer at the McDonalds he was managing.

He used some humor and theatrics to help defuse a stressful situation.

Basically, after trying to make an unhappy customer happy and failing to make any difference, he was asked to “get the manager.” Well, as I said, he IS the manager. So he turned around, threw up his hands, and turned back to face the customer. “How can I be of service?”

The result… a positive experience for him, for the customer (and I suppose for McDonalds.

Enjoy this podcast. Thanks Karyn!

Check out my keynotes, speeches and seminars on Humor and the Workplace here…. no hamburgers required!
Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Keynoter, and Fan of Karyn Buxman

Here’s a cool idea from a fun blog I think you’ll like.

My plan was to anonymously send a $40 floral arrangement to two unsuspecting employees every Monday morning… Attached to the flowers would be a note: “Don’t ever think your good efforts go unnoticed.” Signed: “From someone who cares.”Then do the same: Send someone in your organization an anonymous present. Flowers, candy, balloons, a cool gadget. Something fun, happy, cheap and positive.

Great idea. It could be something as simple as this. Or as affordable as just a hand-written note along the same path. Besides… it’s fun and funny.
Work CAN be fun… but only if you take responsibility for making it so yourself.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humor at Work Consultant, Seminar Leader

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The bottom line is that outstanding employees are given the Garden Gnome to put on their desks. And then the Gnome travels to other desks every couple of months.

The result is super positive, very fun, and very funny. Looking to add some humor to your workplace and don’t know where to start? Then you’ll love this podcast.

More about my work with humor and the workplace, seminars and keynote speeches here.

Cheers!

Read a more detailed write up of the garden gnome here.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Humorist Speaker, Humor In the Workplace Consultant, Fan of Gnomes
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But while you’re working to improve your managing skills, you might as well read about some of the worst bosses in America. Look at this cool site, and look at this fun excerpt:

BadBoss – My Bad Boss Contest
Heart of Stone
I had been working in a grease factory. The bosses were heartless and treated the workers like scum. My job was evolving into a supervisory position, and one of the bosses was giving me special training one day when we got word that there had been an explosion in the factory. It was frightening news that an employee had just been badly injured and might lose an eye. We were hurrying down the corridor on our way to the accident site when my boss stopped suddenly for a moment and carefully instructed me: “Remember when we get there, you’ve got to act like you care.”

Check out my humor in the workplace seminars and keynotes here.

Brad Montgomery
Humor in the Workplace Expert, Seminar Leader, Motivational Keynote Speaker

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Good news, fun seekers… you can do all of that and more if you select the right types of practical jokes.

Here is a great way to freak out your friends and family — that can also be safely taken to work.

Secretly put an uncooked piece of pasta in your mouth. Those little “Pasta Elbows” work great for this gag.

Now find somebody close to you (friend, spouse, boyfriend, whatever!) and ask them to help you crack your neck. Explain that you can’t move your neck as you normally can and that you need their help in fixing it. They won’t know what you mean exactly but that’s just fine. Have them stand behind you as you sit in a chair. Direct them to put their hands on your head and help you to GENTLY turn your head.

With their hands on your head and your hands on their hands, slowly turn your head. While you are turning your head, bite down hard on the pasta elbow. They’ll feel the crunch through your skull.
Now you just say, “Thanks! That is so much better!” Freaked out is an understatement.

Want to avoid practical jokes but still need humor in the workplace? Why not bring me in to be your motivational comedian?

Cheers,

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humorist, Lover of Safe Practical Jokes in the Office

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I don’t want to hate my job. And who would? Your choices are simple: either get a job that you like, or find a way to like your job. Need some help? Check out my motivational seminars and speeches.

But in the meantime, check out this blog post:

jobacle.com – BLOG – Official 2007 Sick Day Calendar
Easter: It can’t be “Good” Friday if you have to punch in. Plus, you need to recharge and resurrect your career. Call in sick on Friday, April 6. Those chocolate bunnies also gave you a tummyache. Take an extra day to find missing eggs and digest that lamb on Monday, April 9.

Memorial Day: Use the official start of summer to plan how you’ll call in sick for the next three months. By taking Friday, May 25 and Tuesday, May 29 off, you’ll show your boss that this summer, you’re using ALL of your days.

Independence Day: It’s a holiday based around independence. Show your employer that you’re a true individual by giving yourself Thursday, July 5. A necessary day to recover from BBQ overload.

Funny Stuff. But I still think you wanna find a way to like your job.

Cheers,

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Guy Who Loves His Job

Enter Red Bull and these awesome photos of their offices.

Ok, so these guys have some serious dough to invest in their work culture. That’s cool… if you got it spend it. And if you’re gonna spend it at the office, I’m all for increasing level of lightness, creativity, morale and spontaneity.

But what about those of out there without the required millions to invest in our workplace and work culture? What can YOU do? Glad you asked. Here’s three things you can do — on any budget — to improve your sense of humor in the workplace.

• Bring some toys (Koosh Balls, Play-Doh, and a ton of Pipe Cleaners) to your next meeting. Encourage your people to play, fidget, and generally goof off while they are are the meeting.

• Have a lottery or raffle and raffle off a bunch of fairly worthless or at least low-value stuff. For example, you can raffle off a free cup of coffee, a “shiny” dime, an extra 7 minutes for lunch, a mint tooth pick, a coupon for 55¢ off Grape Jelly, and maybe a lunch out with the boss. And if you like (and you can swing it with the boss) you can arrange for a better prize like a gift card or maybe letting the winner go home an hour or two early.

• Create a ritual where on the anniversary of your first day at work, you are required to wear a sign around your neck that says, “Anniversary!” Then everybody else in the office has to chip in 50¢ or a buck each and that money is gifted to the person celebrating the anniversary. Their instructions are to have a killer lunch, or to take their spouse out to dinner that night. Good news: a cash bonus courtesy of your peers. Bad news? You gotta wear that stupid sign!

My point? Humor in the workplace and a positive work culture doesn’t have to be expensive. If you can afford it, buy a slide like Red Bull. But if you can’t buy new furniture and re–do the stairs, you can still raise the morale at work. It’s easy, it’s cheap, and it’s well within your grasp.

So… what are you waiting for? Go do it!

Have more ideas? Share them with me! Leave a comment.

Learn more about my humor in the workplace seminars, keynotes and motivational speeches here.

Brad Montgomery
Humor in the Workplace Consultant, Speaker, and Sliding-Board Enthusiast

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They have “Anniversary Day.” It’s a killer idea in a good news / bad news format, … and you should steal it.

Somebody made up a tacky sign that says, “It’s my anniversary” on it. It’s made out of cardboard, has a string, and is meant to be warn around the neck like a necklace on the anniversary of the day that you started work at that office.

That’s the Bad News.

What’s the good news? Everybody else in the office has to give the Anniversary person a dollar on that day. They can use it to treat themselves to a lunch, or to a killer dinner with their spouse… whatever.
Of course, by the end of the year, you haven’t lost anything or gained anything… it’s a wash. But on your anniversary day, you get to FEEL rich. And on everybody else’s anniversary day you get to tease them about the dorky sign.

Result? More humor in the workplace, increased morale, and more fun. Net cost to the office, the managers, and the CEO? Zippo. Nada. Zilch.

All you need is:

1. Find (or elect!) somebody who is willing to make up that sign and you’re ready to rock. (So for those of you whining that your boss won’t enable you to incorporate any of these great ideas, you’re out of excuses here. : ) So stop your whining and get your craft supplies out and get started.
2. Find (or elect!) somebody to create and send a memo and send it to the troops. Get your boss to sign off on it, and you’re good to go. Don’t know how to write a decent memo? Don’t know what it should say? No sweat… I’ve done it for you. Click this link and we’ll GIVE you the memo for free! (Golly… this is easy!)

In pdf format: Anniversary-Memo.Pdf
In Microsoft Word format: anniversary.doc

What are you waiting for! Make this ritual part of your office culture today.

Earn gifts for free and be famous! When your office incorporates this Humor in the Workplace technique here, email me photos and details. I’ll blog you and I’ll send you something for your time. (I’m talking free stuff!)

Check out my seminars, keynotes, and consulting about Humor in the Workplace here.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humor In the Workplace Consultant, Loves to Feel Rich

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But I admit that as much fun as my job is, and as much as enjoy getting a group like this that works together but doesn’t always get a chance to laugh together, wiping the laughter-tears out of their eyes, my favorite part of the day was hearing about their traveling garden gnome.

This is a very cool idea, and I bet they would be flattered if you stole it and used it in your office to brighten up the humor quotient. Here’s the details for the corporate culture-building technique: Anybody in the office is encouraged to write cards “thanking” or “recognizing” their co-workers, bosses, employees, … anybody… for doing a good job, for something special, or for just doing anything noteworthy.

For example, there might be a card written for doing something over-the-top amazing like saving the company a ton of dough, or for helping cover the work when somebody is out sick, or maybe for just being good at your job. Each person who has a card written about them receives a token cash gift awarded at the end of the quarter. (The CHFA give each person either $5 or $10 depending on what you dreaw out of the “hat.” Which, as my grand father would say, is better than a sharp stick in your eye.) I was told that CHFA gives out about $400 per quarter — a small investment for morale.

Every two months, the managers and supervisors go through the cards and select what they see as the greatest one.  This is where the Garden Gnome comes in. That winner for the two month period is “awarded” the garden gnome to put on their desk for that period.

It’s fun. It’s funny. It’s inspirational. It’s morale building. And, best of all, it works. Humor in the workplace? Try “gnome in the workplace!” What an awesome example of a concrete idea that works wonders at one workplace and can easily be incorporated into your workplace.

Do you have a similar — or totally different — story about what happens at your work? Leave a comment.

Hey CHFA! What was the one A-HA you got out of our program there in Denver, Colorado? What did you learn? What will you do differently? Leave a comment.

Special offer for CHFA folks only! Get a free audio of Brad by clicking here.

And your meeting planner (and rock star) Alison Medina asked me to include a link to my books. (I’m flattered!) Thanks Alison. Click here for some cool stuff.

Thanks Chfians — (which is what you call folks from the Colorado Housing And Finance Authority.) I had a hoot.

Cheers!

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Humorist Speaker, Humor In the Workplace Consultant, Fan of Gnomes

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Well, I have one great idea… Monkey Mail. You have to check this site out… it’s hilarious, fun, creative and best of all, easy.

Basically, you go to the site, choose a few “accessories” for your monkey, and then call and leave an answering-machine style message. After the Monkey Mail computer works it through, it syncs up your voice and the monkey’s mouth.

So… what’s this tool got to do with Humor in the Workplace? How can you use it to make YOUR workplace and work culture a bit more fun?

Glad you asked:
• Follow the lead of a friend who is the chief at a Colorado Springs hospital. When he has to communicate with his staff, he uses this tool for the communication. Think this earns a few smiles?

• Need to check with a ling-time client? Maybe somebody who hasn’t heard from you in a while? This is the perfect tool. Your clients will aHumor in the workplace? Sure, it’s a great idea, but how are you going to do it? I mean, how specifically are you going to do it?

Well, I have one great idea… Monkey Mail. You have to check this site out… it’s hilarious, fun, creative and best of all, easy.

Basically, you go to the site, choose a few “accessories” for your monkey, and then call and leave an answering-machine style message. After the Monkey Mail computer works it through, it syncs up your voice and the monkey’s mouth.

So… what’s this tool got to do with Humor in the Workplace? How can you use it to make YOUR workplace and work culture a bit more fun?

Glad you asked:
• Follow the lead of a friend who is the chief at a Colorado Springs hospital. When he has to communicate with his staff, he uses this tool for the communication. Think this earns a few smiles?

• Need to check with a ling-time client? Maybe somebody who hasn’t heard from you in a while? This is the perfect tool. Your clients will appreciate you’re creativity and will welcome this break in their day.

• How ’bout sales? Do you have a client who needs a final “push” toward your product or service? Think they need to hear from you but you want to avoid pushing too hard? Use Monkey Mail! It’s perfect.

I think it’s hilarious.

What do you think? Would you use it? And give us your best ideas about how it might work in your office?

Learn more about my humor in the workplace seminars and keynotes here.

Brad Montgomery
Humor in the Workplace Speaker, Seminar Leader, and Comedianppreciate you’re creativity and will welcome this break in their day.

• How ’bout sales? Do you have a client who needs a final “push” toward your product or service? Think they need to hear from you but you want to avoid pushing too hard? Use Monkey Mail! It’s perfect.

I think it’s hilarious.

What do you think? Would you use it? And give us your best ideas about how it might work in your office?

Learn more about my humor in the workplace seminars and keynotes here.

sd

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For some reason it tickled my funny bone: I would love to be at Mickey D’s with the kids, put ‘em in the booth while I come back with three trays like this.

Can you imagine how it would be?

Or how ’bout this: your loved one is overweight and you arrive with a Big Mac for you and this order for him or her. Funny? You bet. But kiss your marriage goodbye.

Or next time your boss says, “I’m just a little hungry…”

Tiny edible fast-food meal
A Craftster competition to produce edible, miniature food inspired a wife-and-husband team to prepare an incredibly tiny fast food meal, complete with miniscule fries and a tiny soft drink — they also made a miniature tray, cup, and fries-bag.

I give you, miniature fast-food… Our burger was a little over one inch tall and about an inch wide. After we took all the pictures we cut the tiny burger in half and each ate half. It tasted awesome… Everything was handmade, including the tiny buns.

Thanks Boing Boing

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speakers: Corporate Comedian, And Still Hungry

Ok, so you are having another boring corporate meeting meeting. Nobody wants to be there, and the doughnuts are just not enough to get people in a good mood, much less a creative and success-minded mood.

What do you do? Well, I have a ton of ideas for meeting ice breakers and warm ups, but one of my favorites is to print out an odd or unusual photo from the internet or some magazine, and have a brainstorming session of possible captions for that photo.

Before you give it a try, know that you’ll need to set some ground rules for this ice-breaker.: The rules for the brainstorm session need to be made clear. I use something like this in my creativity seminars:

“Ok let’s see if we can come up with some easy rules before we start. First of all, can we agree that only one person talks at a time?” (Of course they’ll agree.)

“Can we agree that there will be no bad ideas…. all captions are good, because we’re going for volume, not quality…. deal?” (They’ll agree, because nobody will want to feel stupid if they come up with something lame. Sometimes I take this a step further and ask them if they think that anybody who says ANYTHING negative has to put a dollar in the middle of the table for next week’s doughnut upgrade. This is really fun… they’ll love it.)

“Our goal is to just find a bunch of captions… not to be funny. So if you come up with a funny one, that’s great. But don’t feel pressure to be funny… just come up with a caption. Deal?” (If you set the goal to find a “funny” punch-line or joke, many people will seize up and shut down. Just tell them that you want a bunch of captions, and trust me, the funny will happen.”

That’s it! It’s easy. Just have somebody write down the ideas on a dry-erase or even a note pad. See how many you can come up with, and then increase that number at your next meeting. Set a time limit of 3 minutes or so, but if they are cranking them out at minute 5, let ‘em!

You’ll be amazed at the positive creative energy you’ll create with this simple little task.

What’s that? Put my money where my mouth is? Sure, glad you asked.

Earn a Free Book!

Write a caption for this photo…. I’ll send a FREE copy of my e-book Humor Me: America’s Funniest Humorists on the Power of Laughter to the 3 best submissions. (Just use the comment field below, and be sure to list your URL.)

My entry for the mock caption:

“You should see what the Tin Man got!”

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Speaker, Humor in the Workplace Seminar Leader, Corporate Comedian

Steve has been a friend for a long time, when we met in Kansas City at a speakers bureau showcase, and I’ve always thought he was funny.
But in this conversation, you’ll hear the serious part of Steve. I always think that it is fascinating to hear people who are professionally funny step OUT of their humorist shoes and talk about the impact of humor and laughter.

Steve Rizzo talks about enjoying the process of living, and enabling ourselves to have and better use our senses of humor.

One of the many points he makes is that although most successful corporate employees will have definable goals and to do lists, very few of them include “enjoying ourselves along the way” on their lists of goals. And that if we want to learn from them, we need to systematically choose to use humor in our lives, and to enjoy ourselves, our families and our jobs.

Steve believes that the ability to use our senses of humor is available to all of us; to everybody on the planet. And that although we might not be always able to teach all people how to be funny, we can teach everybody how to laugh at funny things.

We need to know that there is a difference between laughing at something that is very serious and laughing at the fear that the serious situation creates. For example, Steve reminds us that the successful TV comedy M*A*S*H* used a ton of black humor. And that Hawkeye was one of the most successful doctors not only due to his skills in the operating room, but also because he was most able to keep his life (and sanity) in the balance through his use of humor.

Want to hear a comedian talk in a serious way about humor? Then this episode is for you.

Want to learn about my work as a motivational comedian speaker? Click here.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Comedian, Humorist, Fan of Steve Rizzo

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Check out these sterile face-masks with printed animal faces.

These “Get Well Soon Masks” are sterile hospital masks intended to evince a smile from sick people — less creepy and mouthless than the traditional mime-white version. Link

(Thanks, Boing Boing!)

Your patient (and customer!) would have to be asleep to not react to you when you wear one of these goofy medical face masks. Not only would that be good for the patient (because, as I said before, humor heals.) But it would be good for business.

My point: humor in the workplace is fun. But it can create tangible and measurable benefits for you and your customers; it can change your bottom line. Take a chance; play!

Need a motivational speaker to speak to your hospital or health care group? Just need a laugh? Call me.

Brad Montgomery
Health Care Motivational Speaker, Humor & the Workplace Speaker and Consultant, Fan of Cat Faces

An urinal shaped like the mouth of a woman are seen at a public toilet near Vienna’s national opera, on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006. The businessman who runs the toilet announced Thursday that he would get rid of the urinals, after facing pressure from politicians who demanded their removal.

Can you imagine having this thing in your company’s bathroom? Wouldn’t this create a stir if it was in a government building?

Although it makes me laugh, it would be sure to piss off a few people. (Pun intended.) ButI think that the effort this artist took to make even the most mundane of our human activies fun is absolutely right on.

My point? That life is supposed to be fun, even the part of life we spend taking “bio breaks.” If I had a huge company, I’d hire this urinal-artist in a snap to create a bunch of fun even in the most boring room in the office. Nope.. this particular idea isn’t appropriate, but the concept cracks me up. A urninal shaped like a fire hydrant? Or a rock? A tree? A desk? Now we’re getting closer.
Need some humor in your workplace and can’t afford a plumber?

Check out my motivational keynote speeches here.

Thanks Yahoo. Yahoo! News

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humorist, User of Public Bathrooms

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Baker Valentyn Shtefano and his bride Viktoriya show off her wedding gown, which Shtefano made out of flour, eggs, sugar and caramel in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod in Aug. 27, 2006. The edible dress, made of 1,500 cream puffs and weighing in at 20 pounds (9 kilograms), took the 28-year-old baker two months to make.

Need some humor in your workplace, but don’t want to wear your snacks? Need to lighten up that next meeting but don’t want to come dressed as a cream puff? Try one of my humor in the workplace keynotes or seminars.

Brad Montgomery
Humor in the Workplace Speaker, Consultant, Motivational Keynote Humorist Speaker

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The Suspicious Looking Device is a bright orange box with a countdown timer on the top. If you touch it, it lets out a loud siren and then scoots away on a set of hidden wheels. Its entire purpose is to look suspicious — it has no other function. Link (via Digg)

This thing cracks me up. I love that whoever went to the trouble to invent this goofy thing has a huge sense of humor. Yeah, I know that you could create some real chaos if you put it in an airport or something like that. But wouldn’t it be funny to give one to your wife on Valentines Day? Or to your (much loved) boss on her birthday? Don’t you think it might be funny putting this device on the receptionist’s desk for people to wonder about when the check in for their doctors’ appointment?

Need humor in the workplace and don’t want to freak anybody out? Bring me in do do my motivational speaker humorist keynote…. no suspicious device needed.

Thanks Boing Boing

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote sp;eaker, Humor in the Workplace Pro, Lover of Safe Practical Jokes

This photo is pretty darn funny — but in case it isn’t obvious, this isn’t the kind of practical joke you ought to do at work.

The key is “victimless.” (And this joke isn’t victimless….but it still cracks me up.)

(Besides, this photo just can’t be real. Can it?)

Check out my humor in the workplace seminars and keynotes here.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humor in the Workplace Speaker, Fan of Victimless Practical Jokes

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It was a hoot. A total blast.

My impressions?

First, it was amazing to see them come in not knowing what to expect of me or the retreat in general. Many of them were weary, guarded, and generally reserved. But as we laughed, joked and played through the morning and into the afternoon, they not only relaxed… but they got into it. It was really fun to see the arms uncross, the guarded look turn into smiles, and the quiet room turn into a loud party atmosphere.

The transition was exciting to watch.

It was also fun to see how may of the people already knew some (if not all) of what we were talking about. But even when we “know” something, we are not always doing it.

And finally, it was very cool to help facilitate a list of actionable ideas that this group (and these individuals) could use to create, inspire and maintain a light, productive, humorous and positive workplace.

Here are Brad’s Top Ideas for Leading the Way to Laughter at Work, with all of the specific ideas provided by the Montana Student Loan Folks.

Model Humor Yourself
1. Share funny stories
2. Share/forward fun email.
3. Take the time to get to know your group; will make work more fun and meaningful
4. Create Fun Events Each Day
5. Share Funny names of customers. (There are many!)
6. Install (and use) a fart machine.
7. Wall Of Shame. (Create a wall of fun photos, crazy emails, and other stuff that can grow over time.)

Institutionalize Humor
1. Have a crazy gift (like singing flowers) that you pass around to grumpy people.
2. Have a high five club. Create a club where the “most upbeat” person of the day gets high fives… and maybe a $5 gift card
3. Create a time of the day where everybody dances for 5 min.
4. Create a plastic turkey, and give it to the most upbeat person each day.
5. Play Through-the-day BINGO. (Perhaps over the intercom, perhaps one number every 10 min. If there is no intercom, just shout it over the cubicles!
6. Email jokes of the day. Have somebody in charge of this.
7. Great each other in the office. (Brad’s note: this sounds dumb, but it’s amazing to me how many stories I hear where office mates don’t really take the time to say a simple “hi.”)

Humor Rituals
-Have a bell on your desk and ring it when you successfully complete a task.
-Have manager send somebody random home early on Friday
-Create an Intra-Office Olympics. Chair races!
-Daily cubical volleyball
-Have a single “bad” chair that you surreptitiously sneak to other peoples desk.
-Use clown noses at work. Put them on when you’re in a bad team.
-Send positive emails
-Have ST time. (This is a crazy time where the women (and the men I suppose) get together to do a quick 3 min touch up of their make up together.

Inspire Play at Work
-Have rubber band fights
-Have Marshmallow fights
-Take the time to create social and personal activities with work mates
-Have a planned and scheduled recess. (Karen is going to email proof of this to Brad.)
-Decorate the office for made-up, imaginary holidays.
-Have Group Hugs
-Have duct-tape-ball fights
-Have group walks (and walking meetings.)

Play at work

Have baby picture day. Baby photo day
-Change name plates on the desks
-Scheduled Nerf Basketball games.
-Ice Cream with co-workers.
-Play a lot! Keep it up!
-Create a play room at work. Foosball?, TV? (Bruce says, this room is called, “A bar.”)

Hey Montana! A favor? What was the ONE “Ah Ha” you got out of this seminar / keynote? What will you do differently based on our time together?

Thanks Kids. It was a total blast.

Need a humor in the workplace seminar or keynote for your organization? Need a Humorist Speaker?

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Comedian Speaker, Humorist, Humor in the Workplace Pro

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collectSPACE – news – Hall of humor welcomes astronauts home

Hall of humor welcomes astronauts homeSeptember 25, 2006 — “Words with more letters than ‘Heidemarie Martha Stefanyshyn-Piper” reads one sign.

“Have you seen me?” begins another, which is designed to resemble the back of a milk carton. Underneath, is a photo of a fastener captioned as “Missing since 9/12/06″.

Perhaps they should look up: hanging overhead is a large piece of styrofoam painted and cut in the shape of a bolt.

These and many more flyers, signs and decorations were awaiting the crew of space shuttle Atlantis as they came back to Johnson Space Center on Monday, their first day at work since landing from space on September 21.

This ‘hallway of humor,’ courtesy of their trainers, leads between the parking lot and the astronauts’ offices inside JSC’s Building 4 South. It has become a custom for the returning astronauts to relive the funny moments — and perhaps embarrassing ones too — from their training and mission, hung in full view of all of their coworkers.

I love it! Imagine the power of this humor when it comes to teamwork, morale building, worker satisfaction, and their desires to perform well. Awesome. Now imagine how different the “feel” would be if they put up a banner that read, “Welcome home even though you screwed up that damn bol you losers!”

Think Humor in the Workplace is important? You betcha! And these rocket scientists proved that it doesn’t take a bunch of money, a ton of time, or any special skills. Did they bring in a corporate comedian or motivational humorist speaker to do this for them? No…here is the genius: they just gave permission and encouraged this type of work culture and the rest followed.

Out of sight. (And outer space.)

Need some humor in YOUR workplace? Check out my Humor in the Workplace keynotes and seminars here.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Humorist Speaker, Humor in the Workplace Expert, Astronaut Wannabe

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It was a tax collectors’ school…. a multi-day training where the good folks representing the many counties of Florida came to learn the latest about collecting taxes (and all of the ins and outs that this might entail. Mostly outs, from what I gather.)

I have worked for these good people before, and was flattered to be invited back. Very flattered. But best of all, we did something new for them, and by the looks of it, we did well.

Not only did I present a program on using humor as a tool in the workplace — and at home — but we also spent a good deal of time getting those tax collectors to play. Yes… you read it right: play.

And then we went over five different techniques they could use to IMPLEMENT more humor at their work starting this Monday. Ideas they could use. Ideas they will use.

It’s one thing for me — a comedian speaker — to tell ‘em how to use humor at work. But what we did on Thursday was to get them to brainstorm their own ideas about how they can create and maintain a more “fun” work environment, and for them to leave with an actual to-do list of stuff they can (and want to) incorporate into their workplace culture immediately.

OK Florida DOR: here they are! Here are the promised ideas (that you generated):

Brad’s FIver Top Tips for Leading the Way to Creating a More Humor Filled Work Place (Details thanks to of Florida DOR!)

Model An Appreciation of Humor
• Use Code Words (which can make communicating in front of customers fun.)
• Laugh at yourself. (Often.)
• Smile (A personal favorite)
• Pass out candy / chocolate
• Sing
• Give out free hugs. (Note from Brad: Warning! This will work will for many of you. But beware.)
• Ask the question: “Has anything funny happened to you today?”
• Share funny stories with customers and co-workers

Institutionalize Humor in Your Workplace
• Create theme days (Hat days, costume days, dress up days, dress down days)
• Celebrate co-workers anniversaries of working with the organization. (Make the celebrants wear signs proclaiming the number of years they’ve worked there. And “bill” every co-worker $1 to give them enough money to go out to a lunch. (Brad’s note: if you work in the government, you’re gonna get a NICE lunch.):)
• Schedule regular lunches with co-workers. Agree not to discuss work at lunch.
• Create a “negative comment jar” into which any co-worker who has a negative comment must contribute a quarter. Use the funds for a party, lunch, snacks… etc.

Create Humor Rituals At Work
• Sing Happy Birthday to Customers. (Brad’s note: Florida DOR are often working with people renewing their driver’s license. And their renewal date is on their on their… birthday. So… this technique might not work so great if you work at a gas station.)
• Goof with customers. At the DOR, they like to give “hunters” licenses to people ordering Breast Cancer Awareness plates. Or fans ordering a plate from one college get plates from a different college. The customers “get” the joke, and everybody keeps the humor up.
• Give the most recently hired employee a Holiday Gift: some horrible gag gift. (The person who contributed this idea works in an office where they give out HUGE underwear.) Wrap the gift up nicely, and surprise the newest hire with the gift. Then… this person is required to give this SAME gift the following holiday season to that year’s most recent hire.

Create Playful People
• Be playful yourself! (Model playfulness)
• (This tip is for Supervisors) Create a policy of “Red Light / Green Light.” When the office is devoid of customers, this supervisor leans out her door and shouts, “Green Light!” At these words, the staff knows that they can relax, joke more, smile more, laugh more, and generally be louder. It’s like saying “At Ease!” And then, when the customers are back, a quiet “Red Light” gets the professional tone back in a jiffy.
• (Again, a tip for supervisors) Have occasional drawings for dismissal time. Here’s how it works: there are as many pieces of paper in the “hat” as there are employees. Each piece of paper has a different time of day written on it. (For example 4:30, or 3:55, or 4:59.) Most of the pieces of paper have 5:00 on them. Then everybody draws a “time” and is allowed to go home at the time given. (Brad’s note: I LOVE this idea. It’s easy, it’s fun, and it is affordable. Depending on how you feel, you could give many people lots of time off. Or, if budget is an issue, give most people regular dismissal times, a few 4:55’s tossed in, a few 4:59’s tossed it — because that is funny! — and then maybe let one lucky winner go home at 3:30. Not much of a concession, but I guarantee that it would be fun, and your staff would love you for this game.)
• Create and Exploit Hidden Surprises For example, on especially busy days, soften huge piles of paperwork by hiding a few treats within the pile. Perhaps lottery tickets, or gift cards to Starbucks, or….? When workers find one treat, it will make going through the rest of the pile way more fun. And, as I understand it, other co-workers will pitch in to help when there is a chance for a free lunch!

Be Playful Yourself!
• Consider writing a single message on a Post-It Note reminding a co-worker of something banal. Put the Post-It in their office. Now repeat. And repeat again. And again. Put up a hundred notes, and paper the office with your reminder.
• Create your own personal “word of the day.” Let me explain: suppose you pick the word “terrific.” When ever anybody says this word — and you hear them do it — you give them a pat on the back, a piece of candy, whatever. (Brad’s Note: I love this one too. It proves the point that when we are playful, we have fun with or without the help of the people around us. The “winners” who speak your word of the day may or may not care that they won. But who cares? You’ve done YOUR part ot make your day better.)
•Put an Easy Button on the counter. When your clients’ (or co-workers’) problems are solved you hit the “Easy Button” and everybody gets a smile.
• Bring your toys to work! Stress balls, Legos, Nerf Toys…
• Post Daily Trivial Pursuit games. You can post a question-of-the-day at your desk, on your service counter, or pretty much anywhere in your workplace. Then invite your co-workers to answer the trivia for a prize — or perhaps just for the pride of a job well done.

Brad Montgomery
Florida Keynote Speaker, Government Speaker, Humor in the Workplace Consultant

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I mentioned that one of my favorite ideas is to use humor in my email signature, and mentioned a fake legal disclaimer at the end of one of my signature.

Check this out: the day before one of the guys in the office had received an email from a fellow Superior Essex employee with a mock legal disclaimer. Here it is:

DISCLAIMER: This e-mail, including attachments, is intended for the person(s) to whom it was sent and may contain outrageous claims and bald-faced lies. Unauthorized disclosure, copying or use of this information may result in a can of whoop-ass being opened on you and is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please inform the intended recipient you agree with this message. Thank you.

I think it is hilarious, and proves how easy it is to use humor at work.

Think this email signature is over the top? Think it pushes the envelope too far? I don’t.  I love it.

Check out more about the humor in the workplace seminar I did here.

Brad Montgomery
Missouri Motivational Speaker, Humorist, Fan of Fun Email Signatures

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This photo released by the Capla Kesting Gallery in August 2006 shows a sculpture purportedly cast from 19-week old Suri Cruise’s first bowel movement. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes finally put Hollywood at ease by publishing the first photo of their daughter Suri, four months after her birth, in Vanity Fair magazine’s October issue.

The strikes me as the kind of thing I might do as a joke. I would love to watch the faces of everybody I meet when I show them this bronzed memento. Can you imagine what your mother in law would say? The postman? Best of all, can you image putting on the table in the break-room at work? And then secretly collecting the comments? What a hoot.

It might be a bit pricey, but this type of safe, victimless practical joke just tickles my funny bone.

Learn more about my humor in the workplace keynotes here.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humor at Workplace Expert, Fan of Victimless Practical Jokes

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Like all forms of art, this house takes me away from my problems and brings us back “in the moment.” It’s hard to be totally wrapped up in our work, our over-full email inbox, or all of the dirty dishes when focus on such an amazing sight.

Music is the same type of distraction. When I listen to my favorite music (Dave Matthews Band, for now) I’m able to totally be “in the moment.”

BLDGBLOG: The cantilevered void house

What is it? Who knows. Though, as Mervyn Peake describes the buildings of Gormenghast: “Standing immobile throughout the day, these vivid objects, with their fantastic shadows on the wall behind them shifting and elongating hour by hour with the sun’s rotation, exuded a kind of darkness for all their color.” Cantilevered structures self-supported over the void.

Next time you’re looking at art, really look. Not only to enjoy the art, but to allow and enable the art to transport you back to the moment.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Humorist Keynote Speaker, Art Lover

One of the many things I loved about this job was learning from some of their top consultants in some pre-engagement interviews. (I often call folks representing my client to better understand the organization, the stresses, the joys, and the problems. If my job is to bring more humor to their workplace, it makes sense that first I need to learn about their … well… workplace.) I was really lucky to call one of their absolute leaders in sales, Leslie Zay.

Leslie is charming in every since of the word, filled with vitality and energy, and is truly funny during her presentations. (Leslie flattered me by sending me a tape of her doing an actual show.) She used humor in the best way possible: she used it to get folks to relax and laugh, sure. But I think best of all she created an atmosphere that made it safe for other people to contribute their own humor. In other words, some of the best and funniest parts of her presentation were when her audience made their own jokes.
Leslie’s genius was her ability to set the tone or vibe that humor was not only allowed but encouraged… and the result was an awesome good time. (And from what Leslie told me… it also resulted in a great check at the end of the night.)

What’s my point? Humor is a great tool in business; it’s an excellent tool in sales. If you want to make more money, use humor as a tool.

What’s my other point? You don’t have to be funny to create an environment where humor thrives… you just have to inspire and encourage others to be funny and the humor will follow. (Leslie happens to be very funny, but she is awesome at enabling others to be hilarious.) Thanks Leslie!
Comments? What do you think? (Leave us a comment below.)

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humor in the Workplace Expert, Fan of Leslie and Pure Romance

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This eGovernment company really took a chance on me: this conference featured the top dogs at this HUGE web company as well as their best clients. In other words, this was a very important group of people. Bring in the wrong speaker and the consequences would be horrible.

Furthermore, this group meets often, but they had never had a humorist or motivational speaker; and with me they had both. Again… pretty chancy.

Happily, it went great. After a day of high-content learning we took this group and shook them up, tossed ‘em around, and made ‘em laugh. We put the blood back into their faces, and set the tone for the rest of the day.

My message to NIC? Take yourself less lightly, while taking your job seriously. Enjoy yourself; enjoy your job.

They invested — as so many of my clients are recently — in a HUMOR TOOL KIT for each of their participants, so that each of them would leave with the tools and tips and gag with which to play at work. (I wish you could have seen it…. immediately after my program, with the music blaring, one of the NIC folks was literally tossing these kits to the different folks in the audience. The energy was off the charts. It was a really great moment.)

Afterwards, my meeting planner, Chris N. told me that we had “really created an awesome buzz.” (And he told me later that the buzz lasted…it’s still going.) I can’t think of a better compliment.

Click this button (and turn up your speakers to HEAR Chris from NIC talk about his experience with me.. pretty cool, huh?)

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I’m just back from doing my motivational speakers thing for a unbelievably fast growing company called Pure Romance. I was flattered… they had a blast at my keynote (and later at the Break Out Seminars.) But no matter how much fun they had, I had at least as much. I had a ball!

The assignment wasn’t so different from most of my clients: help them lighten up and take themselves less seriously. And along the way make them laugh and laugh hard. What I didn’t expect was just how much fun we would have poking fun at their industry, at their products, and at the whole darn industry.

It started great: They picked me up in this totally cool Pure Romance Hummer. The looks you get when you’re riding in a Hummer that says, “We Put the “O” Back in Romance” are pretty fun…. people don’t really know what to think.

Then we were off to the keynote where I was lucky enough to follow a panel discussion of their top folks. So the first thing we did was to incorporate the words of THEIR people into my jokes and my message. And then off to stories and jokes about their products and company…. I won’t go into it all, but one of my favorite jokes was about how I managed to get “caught” at the airport security in Colorado with few of their more compromising products in the bag. “They have new ‘no gels onboard’ rule. What’s worse than, as a man, being caught with a lipstick? I’ll tell ya: Having to prove to a bunch of security guys that it isn’t lipstick.” (That joke makes a ton more sense when you realize that Pure Romance sells a lipstick that is anything but make up. )

The next day I taught four breakout sessions about adding humor to their sales presentations. These Pure Romance consultants make live presentations 10 to 200 times a year, and were craving methods and techniques by which they could add more fun and entertainment to their parties. So my job was to help them to sell more by using humor as a connection between them and their audience.

This might be the most important point: People tend to connect to people who make them laugh. We tend to trust those with whom we “connect.” Sales presenters who successfully use humor as a tool to “connect” tend to sell more than those who don’t. Use humor; increase your bottom line.

Hey Pure Romance Consultants! What was the one thing YOU took away from our time together? What did you learn that you’ll incorporate into your sales presentations? Leave a comment below.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humor Expert and Trainer, Pure Romance Fan

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Not if they know Shawna Schuh, a hilarious business ettiquette speaker!

[If you have iTunes... you can click the small iTunes box below and it will take you directly to our Podcasts within iTunes. Or you can play or download this podcast using the graphics above. Choices baby!]

Shawna Schuh is the owner and constant contributer to BusinessGraces.com. In this podcast, Shawna discusses her totally indirect path to her current role as a highly sought-after (and very funny) business speaker. She talks about her unexpected path through Finishing School and reign of Miss Hillsborough Happy Days, and how the skills and techniques she learned in finishing school actually applied to business.

She is a veteran of entertainment, television, radio, and a dozen other bizarre jobs, all of which have brought her to current job.

Currently based in Oregon, she talks about rudeness, how to handle it gracefully, and how we might better use humor to achieve confidence in these awkward social and business moments.

She’s funny; she’s fun; and in this audio recording she explains her start into the business humorist world.

Do you think somebody who has taught Finishing School has something to teach you? Think your business can get forward if you learn how to gracefully add humor to your skill set? If the answer to eaither of those questions is yes, then this podcast is for you.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Humorist, Podcaster, Fan of Business Etiquette

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One of the main reasons this group invited me to speak to them is that they needed (and I mean needed) to laugh. Over the past two years, they’ve had more changes in their management and leadership than they would have liked.

Add to that the recent woes that all title folks have experienced recently with the increase of interest rates resulting in layoffs and a general downturn in business, and what you get is a bunch of people doing good in difficult situations.

My mission? Come in and show them the “other side of the coin.” Show them that in spite of their genuine difficulties they’ve experienced, life —and their work — is still good. That a fun and humorous workplace is still available to them; and essential for them.

How did we do it? What did I talk about? In addition to all of the same tips and ideas I share with most groups about learning to take ourselves lightly while taking what we do seriously, we went straight at the pain. We joked about the turnover in presidents. We joked that the current President, David Dickard was probably temporary too. (David gave me his blessing to joke about him.) We joked about the multiple sales managers, the loss of business due to the interest rates, and we even joked about what we ate at the lunch 42 minutes ago. We joked about how the new software was more of a pain that they would like. We even… check this out… mentioned the layoffs. (You’d be amazed at how many clients with recent layoffs instruct me not to mention the layoffs… as though their staff might forget them?)
I had two choices: either avoid talking about the problems they have had and go for the “life is good” bit, or go straight at the recent problems and difficulties, shine a light on them, and try to live with ‘em. We went for that second choice and I’m glad we did. Yup, things have been hard. Yup, the rates are up and that makes business harder. Yup, there have been layoffs. Yup, the leadership has shuffled more then they’d like. Yup, the new software package isn’t what they had hoped. “Now, what are we gonna do to 1) make sure that doesn’t happen again and 2) how are we going to try to stay sane (and happy!) in spite of the problems?”

One of my favorite parts of yesterday’s program was watching the difference in the group’s mood between where they were at the beginning of the keynote, to where they ended up. At the beginning, they were smiling, but still weary and guarded. At the end, at least from my perspective, they were just relaxed, “in the moment,” and in a much better (and louder) mood. Seeing the change in their body language, their faces, and even their volume was absolutely wonderful.

Hey Stewart Title of Colorado Springs! Favor? What was your “ah ha” from yesterday’s keynote speech? What did YOU take away with you? Can you comment below?

Brad Montgomery
Humorist, Motivational Keynote Speaker, Huge Fan of Stewart Title!

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