He asks the audience to stand up and introduce themselves to six others in half a minute, prompting a giggling scramble throughout the room. We give them an experience of fun in the room at the time so people get permission to start laughing and having joy. In her seminars, Mikki Williams uses Play-doh to loosen up participants. Lynn Berger of Longwood, Fla.-based Lighten Up Ltd. wears duck and dog snouts during her talks and urges her audiences to sport them too. To keep the laughs going, consultants urge workers to tell jokes, take humor breaks, or sponsor an ugly tie or shoe contest.
Many consultants make follow-up calls, and say their advice is heeded a good deal of the time.
Humor in the workplace sounds very frivolous. The people who hire us have to be able to justify why this is necessary. Humor educator Allen Klein's work prompts such wariness that sometimes managers don't reveal what Klein will talk about until he's introduced, so employees don't avoid the seminar. Yet companies nationwide are increasingly interested in the humor business. The Humor Project, a Saratoga Springs, N.Y. humor services group, receives 20 requests daily from companies looking for humor consultants, double the number received three years ago, says founder Joel Goodman.