Uncategorized Archives - Page 4 of 7

24 November, 2014 by Cris Popp

6 reasons to bring more laughter into work

When was the last time you had a good laugh at work? Has it been a couple weeks? Or is it verging on closer to a couple years? You may be missing out on a key element to a happy, efficient, and cohesive work environment.

1. Less Sick Days

Research suggests that laughter doesn’t only feel good, it has actually been proven to have a positive effect on overall health. Laughter reduces stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, improves cardiac health, boosts T-cells (which fight off disease infection), and lowers blood pressure.

2. Happier Workers

Besides reducing stress laughter also triggers the release of endorphins, which act as your body’s pain killers. Laughter has been shown to help ease chronic pain and improve your mood for hours afterwards. Apparently Rudolph Valentino, the ballet dancer, used laughter, to stave off the pain when he was ill in last years of his life.

3. Team Cohesion

Laughter cleanses. It clears the air of any residual negativity and replaces it with positive energy. Sharing a laugh with your coworkers improves your relationship and connects you on an emotional level. After sharing a laugh, they are more likely to share resources. Cohesion is important for a happy and healthy work environment.

4. Exercise

This is an especially good reason if you work in a predominantly sedentary position. Laughing exercises your diaphragm, as well as your abdominal, respiratory, facial, back, and even leg muscles. And it’s a lot more fun than a trip to the water cooler and back.

5. Improve knowledge retention

A study performed by John Hopkin’s University Medical School concluded that humour during instruction led to increased test scores. By presenting information in a humorous way, you can increase the likelihood of your employees’ retention of that information. Note: this is also good to keep in mind if you ever bring a speaker in to the workplace this is especially excellent as it links to me. A funny presenter is a memorable one!

6. Motivation

Let’s be honest here. How many jobs have you had that you can honestly say you were excited to go to? Probably not too many. Now try and think back to the jobs you liked the most – I’m willing to bet those were the ones where you had the most fun with your coworkers. By bringing laughter into your workplace, you create a happier work environment. Tension eases. Moods lift. And productivity skyrockets.

If you would like to have a laughter session at your workplace get in touch with Kris on (+61) 438 545 607 or info@laughterworks.com.au.

10 November, 2014 by Cris Popp

Satisfied or Happy? Which is Better?

Is it better to be happy – or satisfied? Part of the difficulty of this conversation is what do we mean by happiness? Ed Diener (one of the fathers of positive psychology) talks about this issue on his site. To paraphrase – when we ask people how “satisfied” they are we get an answer which is based on their overall life satisfaction. They consider a long period of time and compare themselves to others. To do this they resort to tangibles such as wealth, status, all looks.

However if you phrase the question as “How happy are you?” the respondent seems to go “inside” and check their feeling state – hence they resort to how nice their neighbour was that morning or whether they have a full social calendar.

Another confounding factor is what people remember – i.e when asked about their happiness do they conjure up memories of good or bad events. How do they frame their life? This is more about what they choose to recall from memory, than how happy they are. Interestingly, laughter is a positive event that most people find easy to remember. This is why laughter yoga works so well in workplace settings.

Going back to “life satisfaction” – I don’t think money is as important as the status it confers. What people really want is to feel valuable and ‘important’ – at least in some aspect of their life. Everyone wants to feel like they belong somewhere. Everyone wants validation. Advertising promotes only one sort of validation – it is one based on comparison with others on a material basis i.e the things we can see, own, touch. Laughter on the other hand, is a way to feel positive while engaging with each other – laughter breaks down hierarchies, and laughter builds teams.

If we could validate and value people for what they bring in all their uniqueness, if we could create multiple hierarchies then we wouldn’t all need to be climbing the one narrow ladder (shop, consume). We would be happier with less (and the environment would be happier).

Multiple hierarchies, validation and valuing everyone for their part = lots of happiness? Hhmmm sounds like team-work …

If you’d like to build your team, get your executive working better together, and improve morale and performance, have Kris deliver one of his engrossing keynote talks (eg: “Happy Hour Is 9-To-5”, “Innovation Readiness”), combined with a laughter session. Kris is Australia’s leading corporate laughter leader. Get in touch with Kris: info@laughterworks.com.au or (+ 61) 0438 545 607.

3 November, 2014 by Cris Popp

5 Ways Laughter is best for Your Weight and Health

Try remembering a time you were laughing hard. Did it make you feel good? Were you able to enjoy things and do a lot more when having a good time?

Engaging in a laughter workshop or laughter seminar has been recommended for many employees and organizations. Research shows that encouraging such simple act in the workplace can improve creativity, cooperation and camaraderie.

Other benefits include:

Calorie burn – laughter is a good exercise for your insiders. It improves blood circulation and increases heart rate. It can also tone your abdominal muscles. According to Dr. William Fry of Stanford University: “Laughing heartily five times a day has the same beneficial effects as ten minutes on a rowing machine.” Imagine having a good time and being your way to a toned and healthy body.

Immune system – laughter increases production of antibodies. It also decreases cortisol strengthening the immune system.
Blood sugar – a good round of laughs can reduce blood sugar levels. People with diabetes have reported better blood sugar levels and conditions.
Cholesterol – a good chuckle can increase your HDL cholesterol. Your body can do a little bit better with more good cholesterol in the system.
Pain reliever – if you cannot tolerate then a 10-minute worth of laugh should be a good start. According to research, 10 minutes of laughter can reduce as much as two hours of body pain.

These are just some of the ways laughter can help your body. A healthier body is also more resilient to stress giving you a better chance to enjoy yourself, and make the most out of your life – who wouldn’t want that?

Would like to have more laughter in your life and workplace? Get Laughterworks to deliver a laughter session at your workplace or next conference or event. Contact us: info@laughterworks.com.au, or 0438 545 607

20 October, 2014 by Cris Popp

Where did Laughter Yoga begin?

Dr Madan Kataria started laughter yoga in Mumbai, India after researching the benefits of laughter for an article he was writing. A fully qualified medical doctor, Madan held the word’s first laughter yoga session in a local park (there is actually a much funnier story about how it all began but we’ll keep that for when we meet you in person). The movement has since spread to more than 6,000 locations around the world and was included in the 2004 Melbourne International Festival.

At Laughter Works we’ve combined our work with Madan with our experience in leadership and professional development (including our work with Melbourne Business School) to develop laughter yoga specifically for workplace settings.

Recent research has shown laughter yoga to be highly effective at raising the performance of staff. The health benefits of laughter yoga are undisputed and universal. A customised laughter session is the best way to enjoy “the medicine of laughter”.

Book a laughter yoga session with us! Contact us: info@laughterworks.com.au, or + (61) 438 545 607.

6 October, 2014 by Cris Popp

Factors To Consider When Organizing a Conference

Conferences provide a great way to broaden your network of like-minded people, share your ideas and ease up tension at the workplace through effective team-building. Well organized events will normally leave you bursting with fresh ideas and wondering why the aha! moment hadn’t come any sooner.

To set up a successful event however requires a lot of skill not to mention tireless effort. You should be prepared for late nights, a roller coaster of emotions and your social life will be interrupted in no small measure. A lot of people fail at event organizing as they mostly try to retrofit ideas from previous conferences which mostly results in a mediocre conference or an outright disaster.

By simply having a check-off list while planning your first conference you will have avoided the many pitfalls that many novice organizers fall into. Here are a couple of things you should be sure to get right from the get-go:

Event Theme

It may sound pretty obvious but torturing yourself with thoughts of everything that could go wrong may easily make you forget why the conference is held in the first place! A principle unifying idea not only sets the tone for the entire event but also offers guidance on what items should be the main focus; it makes creating an invitation list for the attendees much easier and makes choosing guest speakers a breeze!

Venue

Conventional conferences are not virtual and so determining a venue that is comfortable for all the attendees is critical. Attendees are more likely to be excited about an event held in a conference hall with an airy feel to it featuring large windows with a stunning view as compared to some dingy basement accented with a hint of mustiness. Comfort for the attendees means that they’ll have a better attention span and even want to stay behind and meet new people once the speakers conclude their speeches.

Speakers

Speakers can either make or break an event. Different speakers will have various ways of capturing the attendees attention for the time they’re up on stage. While most people will try to keep their allotted time at a minimum while offering the most value some subjects require an exhaustive explanation and its fairly common for the audience to drift off to what they had for breakfast or a less banal topic.

According to the journal of Primary Prevention (2007) laughter influences the amount of effort put toward a goal. This would come in handy especially during conferences that are geared toward workplace team-building. In addition optimism and motivation levels were boosted by laughter among the participants of the study making them more effective at work. Just because a subject is dynamic or the speaker is unable to build rapport with the audience shouldn’t mean that it’s ok to settle for a gloomy conference.

Contact Us

Here at Laughterworks we specialize in helping teams create an environment that is great fun for all. We are well spread out across the country and have laughter leaders in each state in Australia. For more on how you can make your next conference a fun and interactive experience please get in touch with us: info@laughterworks.com.au or (+ 61) 438 545 607.