Santo Domingo, December 2014
Humor is delicate and requires sufficient benevolence, empathy and knowledge of oneself and of one’s interlocutors to be a force for good.
“One cannot do humour without a great sympathy for one’s fellow man.” – Charlie Chaplin interviewed by Life Magazine, 1967
In humor, conscious thoughts and unconscious drives are always interrelated, and maybe it’s one of the qualities of sophisticated humor, to never know for sure: is it humor or is it not? In this space of absence of certainties lie new potentialities.
“Tricky humor is.” – Attributed to Master Yoda’s mentor
Humor is often tricky and one could wonder if this is one of the reasons why it has disappeared from one of the most widely used competency framework of the corporate world.
In the early 2000s, The Legacy Lominger Leadership Architect had become a common “language” adopted by HR professionals at thousands of companies around the globe to help corporate leaders identify, develop and align talent. The Lominger model included Humor as a competency (competency number 26), defined as: “Has a positive and constructive sense of humor; can laugh at him/herself and with others; is appropriately funny and can use humor to ease tension.” In 2014, the leadership competency library was replaced by the KFLA Global Competency Framework, aimed at reflecting changes in the work environment such as globalization, complexity, diversity (and, following the Korn Ferry’s acquisition and subsequent merger with Lominger, PDI and Global Novations, to combine their global insights and material).
And the humor was gone.
Nowadays, humor seems indeed nowhere to be found in this renowned updated talent management tool to enhance business performance and success.
“Why so serious?” – The Joker
Has humor become not performance driven enough for the current corporate world?
We could even wonder further and ask ourselves to what extent work itself tends to make us humorless… Back in 2013, for a Gallup study, 1.4 million people across 166 countries were asked a simple question: Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday? For those between 16 and 23 the answer was often yes. After the age of 23, the answer was often no. It seems as if we start smiling again at the age of 70 or 80.
In the pursuit of professionalism and serious business reputations, have we forgotten the value of humor?
“But WHY would I use humor?” – Pragmatic corporate saying
Reason #1: Humor helps us cope with life. Humor is an efficient and mature defense mechanism, compared to more neurotic defense mechanisms such as projection, intellectualization, repression, reaction formation, etc. Metaphorically speaking, humor is a secretion that protects us from others and from ourselves. On top of that, humor helps us to better integrate conflicting emotions and thoughts, whilst still remaining effective. It strengthens our resilience in times of adversity. As a function of the Self, humor “embraces suffering and transforms it.” (Bala, 2010, p. 53)
Reason #2: Humor helps us face the unknown associated with change and facilitates change processes. Even serious accountants have recognized it: “PwC used traditional best practices for change management along the way. But it’s clear from our research that humor helped accelerate the process.” (Harrell, 2021)
Reason #3: When humor is not more concerned with entertainment than education, it can have some positive effects on learning, especially when tied to the content of an educational message. Learning is not detached from emotions and well-planned contextual humor can help ingrain information. Learning becomes also more fun and behavioral change less frightening (Bolkan & al., 2018).
Reason #4: Humor can improve the communication flow and it contributes to psychological safety. As humor or levity increases, so does divergent thinking, making teams more apt to debate options and solve creative and complex problems (Almeida & Josten, 2021; Delizonna, 2017).
Reason #5: A meta-analysis of 49 studies of positive humor (that is, humor that has a beneficial intention) in the workplace also found that humor is an effective way to decrease burnout and stress (Mesmer-Magnus & al., 2012).
Reason #6: A hierarchical manager who uses humor wisely and for positive reasons is more likely to be seen as a team player and commands as much or more respect than a cold, distant one (Ulrich & al., 2014).
All of the above seem serious reasons to be more humorous at work.
“Tell me what kind of humor you use and I’ll tell you who you are.” – Winnie the Clown, Circus Psychologist (unverified quote)
Humor has many shades of subtlety and can play many roles — the good, the bad and the ugly. Humor originates in various inner valleys of the mind and is expressed for different reasons and to relieve various emotions like a steaming kettle; it can thus have a very different impact on oneself and on others.
When you build on universally funny jokes to create positive bonds with others and to make everyone feel comfortable, we experience affiliative humor and we laugh together.
Sometimes, you express self-enhancing humor, striking a balance between gravity and levity and giving power to both (Aaker & Bagdonas, 2021), you laugh at yourself while still remaining pleasant, grounded and having a practical course of action.
“I’ll stop putting “lol” at the end of my sentences when my life stops being a joke lol.” – Instagram post, jest@iris, May 11th, 2021
In some other situations, humor mischievously verbalizes our fears and anxieties, and the gratification of unconscious wishes through humor brings us a sense of relief (Kets de Vries, 1990, p. 760).
“(…) through humour we see in what seems rational, the irrational; in what seems important, the unimportant. It also heightens our sense of survival and preserves our sanity. Because of humour we are less overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life. It activates our sense of proportion and reveals to us that in an over-statement of seriousness lurks the absurd.” – Charlie Chaplin, My Autobiography, 1964
Sometimes, humor feels incongruous, especially when it contains an unexpected and sudden shift in perspective that may create novel meanings. Humor results when two different frames of reference are set up and a collision is engineered between them (Koestler, 1964). Humor becomes a catalyst to cross common cultural boundaries and a vehicle to explore unchartered meaningful territories; it has the potential to multiply knowledge. The famous philosophers and best-selling authors Schopenhauer, Hegel, Kant and Bergson seriously explored incongruous humor.
“The person who writes for fools is always sure of a large audience.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
On the other hand, humor can also be a crude disguise for despising comments, aggressive mockery, or even basic cruelty, intended consciously, or not entirely consciously, to undermine and hurt others, to belittle specific groups or a particular person. Some individuals can’t help but crack jokes at the expense of others, to reassure themselves and to try to avoid facing their own existential suffering (they think that they are perceived as being funny and cool).
When showing power through indirect threats or trivializing problems, humor could mask organizational dysfunction.
When expressing sabotaging passive-aggressive attitudes, especially in formal settings, humor may undermine the authority of management just to push against “something” and to get a sense of being alive through superficial contrarianism.
However, most of the time in real life, humor is neither black nor white. Humans are complex mixed-up beings and it should come as no surprise when humor is served to us as a colorful cocktail of sweet benevolence, sparkling empathy, bitter shame, seasonable fear, stinging irony and sour sarcasm, with some unidentified added extra-flavors.
Don’t be fooled by humor: humor is not necessarily a “change agent”. All humor is not disruptive, as all disruptive discourse isn’t necessarily comical. The humorous boundary crossing can be a force for change, and it can be a lubricant of the status quo and a force for conservatism as well (Weaver & Mora, 2016).
A concrete example: The beloved cartoon Dilbert (first published in 1989) is both a cherished mascot for workers feeling oppressed and a valued marketing tool for companies’ support functions; he appears on office walls all around the corporate world. Even if Dilbert speaks to some very real work experiences and points out folly, offering us a “safety-valve”, a catharsis for our frustration and anger, we are entitled to ask ourselves if exposing easy truths about middle-management avoids tougher organizational stakes and erodes inclinations to fight for better working conditions (Solomon, 1997). When addressing top-management, the funny Dilbert “seems to see the power he criticizes in terms of ‘them’ (…). He also apparently lacks any intention (or hope) of changing ‘them’, rather raising a laugh among ‘us’ at the expense of the idiot managers who are beyond the reach of reason. (…) He does not appear to help ‘them’ run their court, corporation or country any better.” (Otto, 2015, p. 568)
Let’s beware also of humor when joking becomes patterns and mannerisms that stand in our own way and prevent us from being serious even in social situations that require it. When always joking, we risk losing touch with our own vulnerability (never serious, never vulnerable) and having a harder time opening up to the difficulties we are going through and the insecurities we are experiencing. Humor would then become a way to avoid dealing with issues and feelings that arise from it. Humor would blur and then even deny reality. We would surrender courage and freedom, and abandon all hope at the gate of some Disneyland of the mind. It would be idiocy in its pejorative sense.
“Checklists should not be used as a replacement for common sense.” – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, “Checklist”, May 2026
o What kind of humor is spontaneously and mostly used and valorized in your organization? What does that say about your corporate culture?
o What is the primary use of humor when it is expressed in your organization? What does this serve? Who does it benefit the most?
o Are you willing to contribute to the prevailing humor? Or do you aspire to a different kind of humor to positively impact the culture to which you belong and which you help shape on a day-to-day basis?
Disclaimer: By reading this text, talented and/or high IQ individuals, as well as most MBTI types, accept that it may contain defects, approximations and simplifications, a few ideology flaws, grammatical errors, a certain lack of rhythm, or simply not meet their expectations. This text was never intended to be fun. No humorous twist was ever considered to end this text. To assume differently would not be funny.
Aaker, J., Bagdonas, N. (May 17th, 2021). Author Talks: Somebody tell a joke. Retrieved from: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-on-books/author-talks-somebody-tell-a-joke?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck&hdpid=191abc3e-a8b6-4dd8-b23f-44d6938b5e79&hctky=3018397&hlkid=fa90a617193c4272b6d407feee463181
Almeida, T., Josten, C. (April 28th, 2021). Not a joke: leveraging humour at work increases performance, individual happiness, and psychological safety. Retrieved from: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2021/04/28/not-a-joke-leveraging-humour-at-work-increases-performance-individual-happiness-and-psychological-safety/
Bala, M. (2010). The Clown: An Archetypal Self-Journey. Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche, 4, 1, 50–71.
Bolkan, S., Griffin, D. J. & Goodboy, A. K. (2018). Humor in the classroom: the effects of integrated humor on student learning,Communication Education, 67, 2, pp. 144–164.
Delizonna, L. (August 24th, 2017). High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety. Here’s How to Create It. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2017/08/high-performing-teams-need-psychological-safety-heres-how-to-create-it
Harrell, E. (March–April 2021 Issue). Mocking Can Help an Initiative Succeed. Retrieved from: https://hbr-org.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/hbr.org/amp/2021/03/mocking-can-help-an-initiative-succeed
Kets de Vries, M. F. R. (1990). The Organizational Fool: Balancing a Leader’s Hubris. Human Relations, 43, 8, pp. 751–770.
Koestler, A. (1964). The Act of Creation. London: Hutchinson.
Korn Ferry Leadership Architect — Global Competency Framework — Research Guide and Manual. (2014). Los Angeles: Barnfield, H. Editor.
Korn Ferry FYI — For Your Improvement. (2014). Los Angeles: Barnfield, H. Editor.
Lombardo, M. M., Eichinger, R. W. (1996). FYI — For Your Improvement. Minneapolis: Lominger Ltd Inc.
Mesmer‐Magnus, J., Glew, D.J. and Viswesvaran, C. (2012). A meta‐analysis of positive humor in the workplace. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 27, 2, pp. 155–190.
Otto, B. (2015). The Court Jester Is Universal…But Is He Still Relevant? Management and Organization Review, 11, pp. 559–573.
Solomon, N. (1997). The Trouble with Dilbert: How Corporate Culture Gets the Last Laugh. Monroe: Common Courage Press.
Ulrich, D., Eichinger, R., Kulas, J., De Meuse, K. (2014). Humor in the Workplace. In 50 More Things You Need To Know: The Science Behind Best People Practices For Managers & HR Professionals (6th Version),Korn Ferry Products Publications, pp. 183–188.
Weaver S, Mora RA. (2016). Introduction: Tricksters, humour and activism. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 19, 5, pp.479–485.