Overlooked Business Strategy: Levity

Workplace humor is an underappreciated asset, according to Peter McGraw, professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and director of the Humor Research Lab. “Of course I know that jokes, even good ones, can’t overcome a poor debt-to-income ratio or keep a company in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley,” he says. “Humor, however, provides serious value to organizations when used by the right people at the right time.” There is evidence, according to McGraw, that humor may be a boon in sales and negotiations, that it can make a brand name stick in a customer’s mind and that it can increase worker creativity and ability to solve problems.