A 2019 Harvard Business Review poll found that 58% of employees trust a complete stranger more than they trust their boss. Worse: 45% cited a lack of trust in leadership as the biggest problem affecting productivity.
Leaders used to be worshipped – now they need to be understood. And this is where humor helps the most. In “Humor is Serious,” Stanford Graduate School of Business professors Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas tell many stories of how jokes help in big things. We’ve chosen a few – we’re sharing them.
Humor Is Serious
The Grudge in Dallas
In the winter of 1992, Southwest Airlines began using the slogan “Just Plane Smart.” What they didn’t know, however, was that this slogan was already being used (and legitimately so) by Stevens Aviation, led by CEO Kurt Herwald. Herwald’s team wanted to take a rival to court.
But the idea of suing seemed wrong. Instead, Herwald chose a less… traditional, shall we say, approach to resolving the dispute: he challenged Southwest CEO Herb Kelleher to an arm wrestling match. The winner would get the slogan rights, and both leaders would not have to write checks for impressive sums to their expensive corporate lawyers.
Kelleher, who back in 1968 had envisioned “the most unusual airline in the world,” was two hands in favor. The two men prepared to compete in front of forty-five hundred cheering spectators in a crowded Dallas stadium. This strange and unprecedented event quickly became known as “The Grudge in Dallas.
For Stevens employees, the fun began a few weeks earlier, when their fearless leader began posting a series of humorous videos on the company’s intranet documenting his “grueling” workout regimen — with profuse sweating during twists, barbell deadlifts, and bench presses, all seemingly with incredible exertion.
And then it was show time. The crowd went into a frenzy when the 33-year-old Herwald ran into the ring in a red silk robe and triumphantly threw his fists in the air. The cheers only intensified when Kelleher, nearly 30 years older than Herwald, made an even more grandiose entrance, bursting into the stadium accompanied by a dozen pom-pom cheerleaders and a fellow “coach” uniform to the deafening tune from the movie “Rocky.” As the ringing of the bell echoed through the Texas arena, the crowd roared, and the two men clenched their fists in a battle for physical superiority. Or, at least, they endured the image for about thirty-five seconds, until Herwald was declared the undisputed winner.
“The Grudge in Dallas. The climax. Source
After celebrating the victory, Herwald offered to share the slogan with Southwest as a sign of respect, sportsmanship – and a masterful publicity move.
This silly and completely unprecedented stunt not only spared both companies the financial and reputational costs of litigation, but also endeared them to customers and strengthened both brands – which was reflected in financial results. Southwest is estimated to have earned $6 million from positive publicity for the event alone. Meanwhile, over the next four years, Stevens saw 25% higher-than-forecasted growth, with revenues soaring to more than $100 million. Herwald attributes this trend to the recognition Stevens Aviation received from the match.
“[My employees] were so proud of the company and excited about the visible result of their work, and the Dallas Grudge contributed to that,” he told a reporter. – In the months and years after that event, the change in corporate culture was palpable. The employees became even more attached to each other and to their jobs.
The two executives proved adroit enough (at least in conflict resolution; let’s not mention arm wrestling) to come up with creative and playful solutions that worked for them as leaders and for the brands they sought to build.
The right to err
It can be tempting for a leader (or someone who aspires to be a leader) to try to look like he is always at his best, is hands-on, is cool, and has everything under control. But showing your vulnerability is often an even bolder act. And a particularly effective approach is not just to highlight your mistakes, but to ridicule them. As leadership expert Dana Bilkey Asher says, “Laughter helps leaders not in spite of, but because of the vulnerability it exposes. From there, it’s a direct path to trust in the team.”
This is partly why Sarah Blakely, founder and CEO of Spanx, tries to discuss her mistakes openly whenever possible. For example, during regular town hall meetings, “Oops!” Blakely notes her recent mistake and then (much to the surprise of newcomers who aren’t already in the know) starts dancing. Each time, she chooses a song in tune with her blunder and invites the staff to dance along with her. Once, when she wanted to emphasize a strategic mistake she had made in trying to compete in a product category longer than necessary, that song was “Mr. Roboto.” As Sarah puts it, “It’s a terrific song, but it lasts too long.”
From minor blunders to serious strategy errors, Blakely says she tries to “find humor everywhere and tell a funny story about it. After the story is told, all the employees cheer me on.” Her use of humor allows her to admit mistakes, both her own and corporate, with a light heart. It also encourages others to make risky decisions on their own. Blakely says, “I want to free my employees from the fear of failure. You can do great things when you’re not paralyzed by fear.”
Sarah Blakely: “No risk, no story. But the story is the best part.” Source
The habit of viewing mistakes through the lens of the comic can have a significant impact on our psychology. New research at Stanford shows that people who interpret stories from their lives, positive and negative, as comedies (rather than tragedies or dramas) report experiencing less stress and feeling more energetic, determined and satisfied.
Games for Elders
Richard Branson held a series of meetings at his home on Necker Island in the Caribbean to form The Elders, a group founded by Nelson Mandela to work together for world peace and human rights. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Jimmy Carter, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, musician and activist Peter Gabriel, and other world leaders participated in the first brainstorming sessions.
In organizing the event, Branson’s team spent months planning every detail. They prepared detailed daily schedules and compiled hundreds of pages of carefully crafted presentations detailing the pressing human rights issues the group was meeting to discuss.
Branson, however, had other ideas.
As Gene Oelwang, CEO of the Virgin Group, describes, the night before the Elders arrived, “we all gathered to discuss a plan of action. Richard and Peter Gabriel glimpsed the submissions and sent our presentations to the trash. Richard and Peter said they wanted to make this [event] more human. Richard insisted on a radical change in the agenda, to have half a day to play and half a day to work.”
The idea bordered on the absurd – world leaders were flying in from around the globe with the intention of devoting days to advancing the mission of peace and human rights, and Branson wanted them to spend half their time playing? Oelwang recalls objecting sharply at the time: “We have to focus entirely on the agenda. People come all the way out here – that’s what they expect.”
But Branson’s opinion prevailed. The team redesigned the weekend’s agenda according to a half-day work/half-day play ratio. In addition to structured sessions, the meeting was interspersed with play activities – for example, Gabriel and Branson taught Archbishop Tutu how to swim.
As it turned out, it was during the afternoon games that the real work was happening.
One of the Elders, Archbishop Tutu, never fails to laugh. – Source
Most remarkably, just on one such evening, as President Carter and Archbishop Tutu sat together on the beach, feet buried in the sand, the two men articulated what would eventually become the founding values of the Elders. It was in that wonderful moment that the alchemy of levity, togetherness, and joy combined with the seriousness of the task at hand yielded profound results. Oelwang created the solid foundation necessary for the group to dive into pressing issues, and Branson gave his colleagues the space they needed to think, dream, and create.
Branson firmly believes that non-seriousness is most needed at serious moments, such as this once-in-a-lifetime gathering of the greatest leaders of a generation to discuss the most intractable global problems of our time. That time, a brilliant and rather motley group of world leaders not only had a wonderful time laying the foundation for an enduring partnership of mischief and fun, but also did much good for humanity.
And, as Branson and Oelvang remind us, the balance between seriousness and levity is not only a powerful strategy for solving important problems, but also an effective recipe for a winning team.
Based on “Humor Is Serious
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Cover Story – unsplash.com
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