Read an Excerpt
Laugh and Learn
95 ways to use humor for more effective teaching and training
By Doni Tamblyn AMACOM Books
Copyright © 2003 Doni Tamblyn
All right reserved. ISBN: 0-8144-0745-5
Chapter One
Okay, So Why Use Humor to Deliver Brain-Compatible Learning? In this chapter:
* How humor is both an innate and a learned ability
* How mirthful laughter affects the chemistry of stress
* How humor lets people follow their natural inclinations to feel good and to like each other
* How humor and play exploit two big communication tools
* How humor can be used to make information "feel real"
* How humor and play can help your brain to breathe
THE STORY goes that an Arctic explorer was surveying the vast, icy landscape of the North Pole to get his bearings, when he happened to look over at his native Inuit guide. The man was shivering violently.
"Cold?" inquired the explorer.
"No," replied his companion.
The explorer turned back to his compass and continued to calculate their location. A moment later, he noticed again that his friend was shivering almost uncontrollably.
"Cold?" he repeated.
"Not at all," the man answered serenely.
The explorer looked at him. "Then why are you shivering?" he asked.
His guide gave him a puzzled look in return. "So I won't be cold," he said.
This story nicely parallels why we use humor. Life is full of stress. Many of life's challenges cause us profound discomfort. At these times, our best bet is to react productively. In the case of cold, the most productive response our bodies can come up with is to create internal heat by shivering. Ironically, we look cold to the observer, but in fact we are warming up. We are knocking the problem down to size.
Through humor, we knock other challenges down to size. Psychologist Rollo May says, "Humor is a healthy way of feeling a 'distance' between one's self and the problem." Essentially, he is talking about perspective. It is perspective that best allows us to face our problems squarely-and when we face problems squarely, we make fewer mistakes in solving them. How else can we gain perspective on our problems? Usually through the passage of time. And these days, time is a scarce commodity. This means humor may be one of the cheapest, most effective time-management strategies we can use! Why are we laughing? Ironically enough, so that we can think seriously!
"Humor is by far the most significant behavior of the human brain." Edward De Bono, creativity authority
And now let's look at the six main reasons why teachers, trainers, and other communicators should seek to invoke the "foolishness" of laughter in even their most serious communications. The reasons will be briefly outlined below; then in the "How" section of this book, an entire chapter will be devoted to each. Ready? Let's go.
The First and Best Reason: It's Easy and Everyone's Naturally Good at It
Everybody but you, you say? Careful not to confuse humor with stand-up comedy. Remember, it's not your job to be a Joan Rivers or a Rodney Dangerfield. As you saw in Chapter 1, humor is less about jokes than about play-and play is an inborn human trait. Edward Norbeck has said: "It seems the more advanced a species is on the evolutionary scale, the more frequent and diverse are its play activities." Both humans and animals play; it seems we are "wired" to do so. This fact strongly suggests that play is in some way a survival mechanism. In any event, we are all born with tremendous expertise in it. This brings me to the good news: Repeated experience has shown me that most people can apply their natural playfulness to their learning within the first half hour of any workshop.
"They that are serious in ridiculous things will be ridiculous in serious affairs." Cato the Elder, Roman statesman
When I started out teaching Traffic Violator School, I was extremely nervous. How, I wondered, could I get people who could only be described as "hostile learners" to willingly take part in the Creative Learning I had planned? Within two months, however, that nervousness evaporated. Why? Because I had found that my learners loved to play! Every single group got deeply into the spirit of the thing-not most groups, but every single one.
These learners made a 180-degree turn in their attitude toward the class and the learning material. And they did not do it because I stood there telling jokes for six-and-three-quarter hours. (Would you?) No, they did it because they got to use their own, innate playfulness-to reacquaint themselves with one of the best parts of themselves. They had exercised a muscle that, for many of them, had been far too underused for far too long. You could virtually watch their self-esteem rise with their endorphin levels. And it had been astonishingly easy to help make that happen.
Key Point: You may not be able to boost your Intelligence Quotient, but you can certainly boost your Humor Quotient! After that, it's a relatively simple step to help others boost theirs. If this is where you want to start, have a look at Chapter 4.
The Second Reason: It Substantially Reduces Stress and Threat
Sandy Ritz, a disaster response specialist with the University of Hawaii, has a photo of a house badly damaged by Hurricane Andrew. There it stood, leaning at a crazy 45-degree angle; it looked as if the next breath of wind would finish it off. The owners had long since been evacuated. But before leaving their home, they had lovingly spray-painted a message on the garage door. It read: I've fallen, and I can't get up.
It seems we humans have developed a remarkably, brilliantly creative way to confront our fears and relieve our stresses-we laugh! And it's a good thing we do. Brain research shows that threat and high stress seriously impede learning. The brain responds to perceived threat in very predictable ways: The emotional stimulus short-circuits the mental pathways normally engaged in learning, and instead excites the "fight or flight" mechanisms in the mid-brain. Threat and high stress are especially brain-antagonistic in the long run, since the stress hormones released in these states, if chronically present, can literally lead to the death of brain cells! Meanwhile, recent research suggests that mirthful laughing can change the chemical components of the blood, replacing distress (negative stress) with eustress (positive stress). If your learners are highly stressed-maybe just because they don't like being "back in school"-you'll want to make especial use of the humorous techniques in Chapter 5.
"Our early emphasis on human relations was not motivated by altruism but by the simple belief that if we respected our people and helped them respect themselves, the company would make the most profit." Thomas J. Watson, Jr., founder, IBM
The Third Reason: It Draws People Together
Ever been at seemingly impassable loggerheads with another person, when something made you both laugh? Suddenly your differences diminished, didn't they?
Dr. Robert Baron, psychology professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, tells us people cannot entertain two incompatible feelings-like, say, resentment and amusement-at the same time. As the manufacturer told the client who wanted a high-quality job done both fast and cheap: "Pick one and call me back."
When confronted with two conflicting emotions, we pretty much have to do the same-pick one. Again, in my experience, when given a choice between an unpleasant feeling and a pleasant one, we will usually gravitate toward the pleasant feeling. Humor is a pretty impressive phenomenon: Used appropriately, it makes us willing to listen to each other. It makes us appreciate each other more. We just get along better. And as you will see in Chapter 6, this is very good for learning.
The Fourth Reason: It Enlists Two of the Communicator's Best Friends-Relevancy and Visual Memory
I will never forget my first flight on Southwest Airlines. There I was, reading my magazine, serenely ignoring the pre-flight announcement I had heard countless times before, when suddenly came the words:
"Ladies and Gentlemen, there may be fifty ways to leave your lover, but there are only four ways to leave this aircraft."
My head snapped up. I looked to the front of the plane. The flight attendant was smiling pleasantly, pointing out the emergency exits in the time-honored way. I continued to listen, intently now. The announcement went on:
"By the way, there is never any smoking aboard our flights. If we catch you smoking here at Southwest, you'll be asked to step out onto the wing and enjoy our feature presentation, Gone with the Wind. Although we never anticipate a change in cabin pressure, should one occur, simply take an oxygen mask and insert a quarter. Unlike President Clinton, you must inhale ..."
Southwest Airlines understands something many of us seem to have forgotten: When something is fun, you can't stop people from doing it. Fun is intrinsically motivating, and as such, answers the brain's eternal question, "What's in it for me?" The brain has a much easier time holding onto information that answers this question-that feels personally relevant.
It also has an easier time holding onto information received visually. If I asked you, for example, to memorize the Japanese term for "Good morning"-Ohayo Gozai Masu-you would no doubt manage it after a certain amount of repetition. If you created a mental picture from the words, however, perhaps imagining a goat in Ohio with bad eye makeup-"Ohio goat's eye mess"-you would probably memorize the term much more quickly. You would also be more likely to recall it years later. (At least I do, fourteen years after taking my single, short-lived course in Conversational Japanese!)
In Chapter 7, you will learn fun ways to make your programs personally relevant to your learners, as well as to exploit visual memory.
The Fifth Reason: It Engages Emotion
Imagine trying to decide where you want to go for dinner based only on a logical weighing of pros and cons. One restaurant has great romantic ambiance, but an unremarkable menu. Another has that mouth-watering duck, but it's all the way across town. Still another has everything you could humanly want in a restaurant-plus prices that scream "Special Occasion." In the end, you must go with a feeling about one of the restaurants ("I'd die for some duck tonight!") or you'll never get out the door.
Brain theories come and go, but researchers have long agreed on one point: Without emotion, cognitive thinking is limited.
It is through their emotions that your learners will assign value to your information. Specifically, their emotions will help them decide:
1. How they feel about your topic
2. Whether or not they want to learn it
3. Whether they believe the information they're hearing is true
4. How long they should remember the information
Without an emotional response, your learners may understand your curriculum, but it won't feel "real" to them. In Chapter 8, you'll see in more detail how this constitutes a major problem, and why as much as possible you must deliver your presentations in ways that engage emotion. You will also see how to use humor, creativity, and play in appropriate ways to accomplish this.
The Sixth Reason: It Allows the Brain to Take Regular "Breathers" for Meaning-Making, Heightened Attention, and Review
Remember reading in Chapter 2 about the brain's need to make meaning and the Zeigarnick Effect (taking breaks to build attention)? There's one more good reason to build time into learning.
In the late nineteenth century, memory researcher Hermann Ebbinghaus found that a learner's typical retention of new information over a given period of time could be plotted on a graph. Ebbinghaus later found that the right amount, spacing, and duration of review could increase recall dramatically. From various experiments in educational psychology, the schedule of review below seems to inspire optimal retention of material. (Note: This schedule assumes a learning module of forty-five minutes' duration):
* After ten minutes: Five minutes' review
* After one day: Five minutes' review
* After one week: Three minutes' review
* After one month: Three minutes' review
* After six months: Three minutes' review
(Important point: With regard to the first-listed item-five minutes' review after each ten minutes-don't be shocked! Remember that this schedule as a whole suggests an optimal scenario. First, we seldom enjoy optimal conditions in life. Second, this 1:2 ratio of review presumes that much of our "check" is "deposited" and "withdrawn" through the Semantic pathway [the one that relies heavily on words, numbers, and logic]. Of the four pathways, the Semantic pathway is the only one requiring conscious intention to remember. Probably for this reason, it is also the only one employing the strategy of short-term versus long-term memory, that is, quickly dropping information if not coded "important."
In short, five minutes' review after each ten minutes of curriculum makes sense-if you're teaching solely through word, numbers, and logic. Which, hopefully, you're not! It can certainly be argued that, as more and more teaching professionals begin to use Brain-Compatible Learning techniques, the world will come to appreciate the vast amount of learning that happens via the other three pathways. Ebbinghaus, however, was the product of his time, in which linguistic/logical/mathematical was the most-some would say the only-respected intelligence.)
This pattern of review has been shown to increase long-term recall up to 88 percent-a 400 percent improvement over Ebbinghaus' Curve of Forgetting!
The key point with all of this is that the brain can only take in so much information in a given time period. In other words, holding learners to an intense learning schedule is brain-antagonistic. You must avoid making your curriculum too dense. Loosen up your schedule to give time for exercises, Q&A, reflection, discussion, review, and plain old breaks. This will let your learners interact with the information they've received, to make meaning of what they're hearing-ultimately helping to ensure that their learning will "stick."
Many corporate trainers sigh longingly at the thought of a loose schedule. These folks usually work for organizations whose decision-makers cherish two conflicting premises:
1. That their employees need training
2.
Continues...
Excerpted from Laugh and Learn by Doni Tamblyn Copyright © 2003 by Doni Tamblyn. Excerpted by permission.
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