What is Humour at Work All About?
Why Did Michael Kerr Create Humour at Work?
After working as a manager in what I can sadly describe as a “soul-sucking, Dilbert-like, fun-sucking dysfunctional work environment,” I created Humour at Work (for my American friends, that’s Humor at Work!) in 1997.
As corny as this may or may not sound, I decided to make it my life mission to help organizations of all shapes and sizes to become less Dilbert-like . . . more inspiring.
Less soul-sucking, more soul-enhancing.
Less “have to” kind of workplace, more “want to” kind of workplace.
Less “Thank God It’s Friday” … more “Thank God It’s MONDAY!”
You get the idea.
I’m passionate about this topic because I believe that life is too short to work in a workplace that is not as inspiring and meaningful and fulfilling and yes, even as fun, as it can possibly be.
And I created Humor at Work because I get truly inspired helping people, teams and organizations get better results, and I love sharing innovative ideas about what great organizations are doing to inspire their leaders, employees and customers.
What Does Humour at Work Do?
Humour at Work provides keynote presentations, training workshops, books, DVDs, audio CDs and other humour resources for seriously-challenged organizations around the world to help them build more inspiring workplaces and to help them get the results they need.
But… It’s Much More Than “Humour in the Workplace”
Michael isn’t just a “humour in the workplace” speaker.
Nor is he your typical “empty calories” motivational speaker.
Michael speaks, trains and writes about “serious” workplace issues such as: maintaining high-performance workplace cultures, leadership skills, workplace values, managing workplace stress, communication, motivation, teamwork, organizational creativity, and customer service.
Michael’s natural sense of humour and his belief in the power of humour led him to use humour as the “entry point” for talking about all these issues, and as a more fun and engaging means of delivering what can sometimes become rather dry messages.
Michael believes in the power of positive humour to keep the humanity alive and kicking in the workplace. To put people first. To spark creative thinking. To build trust and foster stronger relationships. To shake up the status quo. To breathe life into a workplace. To motivate, inspire and even challenge people to perform in new and better ways, more inspired ways.
The Workplace Ecosystem
Humour at work is not just about using humour as a tool. There’s a chicken and egg relationship that exists between inspiring workplaces and positive humour.
We need to think of humour as both a tool and, perhaps even more importantly, as an end result – an indicator of success. If you build a great workplace culture that truly puts people first, then it’s easy to bring a positive attitude and a sense of humour along for the ride.
And when you are successful, it’s easy to keep people motivated – after all, there’s nothing more motivating than success.
This is why Michael believes that when you talk about workplace issues, you need to take a long-term, integrated, holistic approach.
The workplace is like an ecosystem: everything is interconnected, nothing happens in a vacuum. “Managing stress” is linked to work-life balance issues, goal setting, communication, teamwork, motivation, managing creativity in teams, and leadership issues.
Or to properly speak of “motivation” issues in the workplace, you need to also talk about everything from your vision and values, to how you communicate in the workplace, manage stress, and manage creativity in the workplace.
Absolutely everything in the workplace is interconnected to everything else.
Which is why Michael prides himself on his knowledge of all aspects of workplace culture, and on what it takes to truly create an inspiring workplace.
To book Michael for an event that could, quite possibly, change the way you work forever, contact his office at mike@mikekerr.com
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Audience feedback to one of Michael’s recent presentations:
- “Michael was fabulous, very funny
and uplifting. I hope my fellow coworkers took to heart what he said,
as some of the things he mentioned, have happened. He really told it
like it is, and showed how it should be.”
- “Michael energized the group with
his presentation and left the group
with some practical and
inspirational ideas to work with.
This clearly came through the two
team building event.”
- “Really important stuff brought
down to basics. Great
presentation.”
Mahen Rawal, PMP, Strategic Sourcing
Group, TD Bank Financial group
