There is little success where there is little laughter.  ~Andrew Carnegie

Oh so true!  Last week I facilitated a two-day training on effective presentations for a global manufacturer who has high expectations for professional presentation skills from all employees.  These employees were lower management so they had minimal experience giving presentations.  And as I had expected, many were in the class to find ways to manage their nerves around public speaking.

It was a small group, just a dozen, so they had plenty of opportunities to practice their presentation skills with no negative repercussions if things didn’t go well.  This was purely a learning and development experience.  After several fun exercises to work out some of their anxiety, the first presentation they had to give to the class was just one minute.

After several presentations, a woman got up to take her turn at the front of the room.  She was especially anxious; she was clearly fearful about that one minute.  She said a few sentences, but then her nerves got the best of her and she started to laugh.  She tried to compose herself, but to no avail continued to laugh.  The class was trying desperately to remain composed and support their colleague.  She continued to laugh, then she gave up and headed to her seat, and the pent-up laughter erupted.  Everyone was laughing, hard, there were even tears streaming down a few faces.  As I moved to the front of the class I told her that it was both unfortunate, and fortunate, that she has an incredibly contagious laugh.

The next day, several members of the class commented that they recounted the incident that night and laughed again.  One person even said that she couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed so hard.

This moment of unabashed laughter caused me to think about laughter in organizations.  Many times, when you ask someone why they married a person, a frequent response is because they make me laugh.  Laughter is clearly something we value in close relationships.  Given that we spend a significant amount of our time at work shouldn’t we want our organizations to be filled with laughter?  And what if it was the leaders in the organization who modeled the way?  Wouldn’t that be a place we’d all want to go to everyday?

Laughter, it may be a tool in every leader’s toolbox that doesn’t get used as often as it could, or should.  Maya Angelou said, “Laugh as much as possible, always laugh.  It’s the sweetest thing one can do for oneself and one’s fellow human beings.”

This week, let yourself go, laugh a little at the office.