Catching up with Karyn

Fun fact:

In January of this year, Southwest Airlines reported their 46^th consecutive year of profitability. They also ranked #11 on Fortune’s 2019 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies.

One of this company’s standout qualities is its dedication to a humorous corporate culture. Their flight crews are encouraged to be funny, and the numbers don’t lie - that sense of humor is paying off!

No, this post isn’t sponsored by Southwest Airlines! They’re just an excellent example of how a company that values a good laugh achieves success. This is High Performance Humor at work (literally!).

High Performance Humor: Let’s Break It Down

High Performance Humor (HPH) is the strategic use of humor in a professional setting in order to achieve a more successful work environment.

Every organization can benefit from incorporating HPH into their workplace; however, before you can give HPH a seat in the boardroom, you have to understand how to properly...

Welcome back! Can I safely assume, since you are excellent humor scholars, that you’ve taken the humor quotient test that I talked about in last week’s video? If you haven’t, go back to last week’s post, then come back and join us!

If you have taken the humor quotient test, excellent! Now, you’re probably wondering what you’re supposed to do with the numbers that you got back. This is where some high school math comes in (I know, it’s been a while). What we’re going to do is graph those numbers, and then you’ll be able to see where you lie in terms of appreciating and applying your humor.

If you find yourself in the bottom left quadrant, you might believe that humor isn’t a crucial part of improving both your professional and personal life! Now, if this is where you landed on the grid, don’t be discouraged—there is always room for improvement no matter where you are on the graph! That’s right. Even if...

A CFO’s Take on Humor in the Workplace

One thousand, four hundred CFOs were asked, “How important is an employee’s sense of humor in him or her fitting into your company’s corporate culture?” Seventy-nine percent of them said that an employee’s sense of humor was important for fitting into a company’s corporate culture. Seventy-nine percent! 

Wow! Two things about this impressed me. First, seventy-nine percent is a huge majority. And second, why the heck did they ask CFOs?!  One would of thought they’d ask the CEO or director of HR, but I think it’s fantastic that the researchers asked the single most numbers-oriented person in any firm such a “soft” question.

The research also revealed that twenty-two percent said it was “very important,” while twenty percent said it was “not at all important.”

“A little levity goes a long way toward building rapport among colleagues, and...

Thanks for asking. I was Vice-President of the JNJ during its eight year stint and best friends with publisher, Doug Fletcher. Doug had a great vision when he created the JNJ and left a tremendous legacy. His untimely death, and the deaths of our friends and colleagues Bob Diskin (Too Live Nurse), Georgia Moss, and Diane Rumsey, left a huge void in the world of healthcare humor. In Doug’s honor, AATH has named its Lifetime Achievement Award after Doug (see www.aath.org)

Below is an announcement I created when we ceased publication of the JNJ. Barely a day goes by that I don’t think of Doug and smile.

The Journal of Nursing Jocularity was a quarterly publication for nurses and health professionals that was written, edited, illustrated and published by nurses and health professionals. The first issue was Spring, 1991; the last issue was the Spring, 1998. Filled with satire, true stories, cartoons, and all around funny stuff related to nursing and health care – it...