One of the least appreciated or discussed assets which is a factor in professional working life is the use of humour. Making people laugh or at least be amused is a very useful skill. I actually did see an article discussing this element of our make up this week which sees humour as one key element to improving the workplace. It cites the American writer and poet Maya Angelou as saying I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.
I recall a negotiation with a very aggressive procurement officer who arrived at a meeting late to find the rest of us laughing at some comment. With a serious and absolutely deadpan expression she informed us that she had a sense of humour too. No wonder she was so difficult to negotiate with. As Henry Ward Beecher the 19th Century American Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer said A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.
By contrast I find some joke or light hearted comment can break the ice at the start of discussions or can help take unnecessary heat out of an awkward moment. I used a Winnie the Pooh cartoon drawing in one customer presentation just to lighten up a crucial and serious subject and it helped get our point across.
As well as assisting in establishing a position the ability to laugh together generally improves relationships around the table. It can even foster creativity by getting participants to move away from some issue they are stuck on enabling them to look at solutions rather than problems.
Here is a short article Negotiation Is No Laughing Matter -- Or Is It? on the benefits of humour in negotiations. And here is another Humor as a Negotiation Tool – or How Humor Saved the World which cites the example of negotiations over the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when as American and Soviet delegates came together to negotiate, tensions were high, and they soon became deadlocked. And then…a Russian delegate told a joke: “What is the difference between Capitalism and Communism? In Capitalism, man exploits man. In Communism, it is the other way around.” Everybody laughed - and that may have literally helped save the world as we know it.
Henry Kissinger also famously deployed his keen sense of humor to powerful effect at the negotiating table – see this LinkedIn blog Using Humor in Negotiations.
This Forbes article advises Telling a good joke can have a discernable impact on the dynamic of the negotiation. It allows you to take center stage and establishes you as a dominant force in the room. It will actually energize you. These effects can carry over quite favorably into the substantive negotiations that follow.
As the Danish comedian Victor Borge said "There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth."
In the language of the millennials LOL!
I recall a negotiation with a very aggressive procurement officer who arrived at a meeting late to find the rest of us laughing at some comment. With a serious and absolutely deadpan expression she informed us that she had a sense of humour too. No wonder she was so difficult to negotiate with. As Henry Ward Beecher the 19th Century American Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer said A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It's jolted by every pebble on the road.
By contrast I find some joke or light hearted comment can break the ice at the start of discussions or can help take unnecessary heat out of an awkward moment. I used a Winnie the Pooh cartoon drawing in one customer presentation just to lighten up a crucial and serious subject and it helped get our point across.
As well as assisting in establishing a position the ability to laugh together generally improves relationships around the table. It can even foster creativity by getting participants to move away from some issue they are stuck on enabling them to look at solutions rather than problems.
Here is a short article Negotiation Is No Laughing Matter -- Or Is It? on the benefits of humour in negotiations. And here is another Humor as a Negotiation Tool – or How Humor Saved the World which cites the example of negotiations over the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when as American and Soviet delegates came together to negotiate, tensions were high, and they soon became deadlocked. And then…a Russian delegate told a joke: “What is the difference between Capitalism and Communism? In Capitalism, man exploits man. In Communism, it is the other way around.” Everybody laughed - and that may have literally helped save the world as we know it.
Henry Kissinger also famously deployed his keen sense of humor to powerful effect at the negotiating table – see this LinkedIn blog Using Humor in Negotiations.
This Forbes article advises Telling a good joke can have a discernable impact on the dynamic of the negotiation. It allows you to take center stage and establishes you as a dominant force in the room. It will actually energize you. These effects can carry over quite favorably into the substantive negotiations that follow.
As the Danish comedian Victor Borge said "There is more logic in humor than in anything else. Because, you see, humor is truth."
In the language of the millennials LOL!
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