I am not a funny person. My jokes usually fall flat. My only joke that gets people laughing is when I talk about how I cannot tell jokes. So I really resonated with this blog post from a favorite, Karin Hurt, it's titled "Strategic Silliness: When to Lighten the Mood." Ms. Hurt is "an experienced executive leading a Fortune 15 company" and makes time to write a thought-leading blog on leadership (and respond to every comment).

She starts her post with a story about a prospective business partner who came to a meeting finalizing an important deal with a song he had written for the occasion. He sang and she listened deeply, to the song and to the presentation that followed. And she decided to work with the presenting company--mostly because of the capabilities and presentation, but you know that the ice-breaker of a song was not a deal-breaker.

Ms. Hurt goes on to share that well-timed silliness can...  

• show you are real
• ... and bold
• energize the meeting 
• build relationships
• create memories

This reminded me that most of my favorite memories of the workplace have a component of fun to them.

The blog post closes with precautions, here are a few. Useful silliness... 

• is tasteful
• must be well timed
• works because it is infrequent  

I cannot sing either, my father used to howl like a dog when I tried as a kid. So I am thinking about, and planning to practice, other methods of bringing creative, well-timed silliness to my work. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have one to share. What about you? 

Continued success!   

Warmly,

Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe