George B. Thomas explains how humor creates a safe space for teams to ask for help and handle conflict. When people can laugh together, they're more likely to support each other through challenges and build real resilience.
Think about it. The best teams that you've ever participated in or been part of were probably where you could crack a joke, share a silly story, or even laugh through the mistakes. I mean, Chris, let's just call back to the other podcast that we were just doing. Wake up with AI. Like, all three of us are a team on that podcast, and we were cracking jokes. We shared the little silly stories. We laugh even as we're kind of making the mistakes through, through creating a piece of content. Like, that's a, A micro version of what I'm saying can happen in organizations because humor helps teams navigate challenges without crumbling under the pressure of those challenges that they're facing. It creates an environment where people aren't afraid to admit that they need help, which we've talked about this during the helpful pillar. Your humans, your teams need to be able to have the freedom to be like, hey, I. I need some help over here. And get that help. And know that they're not going to be judged, they're going to be supported. Now, don't get me wrong, they might be teased a little bit. Wink, wink, see what I did there? Little humor. But. But always they're going to be lifted back up, right? Because that's just kind of the culture that you'll have as that even small team inside the larger organization. A team that laughs together can also tackle conflict more effectively. You see, humor tends to diffuse positive. Humor tends to diffuse tension. It can even bring perspective, and it can remind everyone that at the end of the day, we're all on the same freaking side. So it's a reminder that we're not just tackling tasks.
