Humour and Creativity
Posted on November 15, 2007 - Filed Under On Ideation
I was on Fast Company’s site yesterday and noticed this article called “Why You Should Include a Joker in Every Brainstorming Session.” Finally, some validation! Some expert has given me a legitimate business argument that explains how my sometimes effervescent behaviour improves creativity. That’s right. And that person is John Morreall, a professor at the
Excepts from an interview with Professor Morreall.
You say that humor increases productivity, reduces conflict, and fosters change. Is this a joke?
“Humor is healthy, especially the way it reduces stress. Humor is the opposite of fight-or-flight emotions — especially fear and anger. I can’t be laughing with you and angry or afraid of you at the same time.”
How does it encourage creativity?
“Humor makes us think more flexibly. People who think funny do better on creativity studies. To put it really simply, humor loosens up your brain to think of more possibilities and be more open to the wild and wacky ones.
There is a guy at the State University of New York at
Let me give you an example. A bunch of paint engineers were moaning and bitching about how hard it is to get paint off a house. One guy says, “Why don’t we just put gunpowder in the paint and blow it off the house?” That led people to think, “What could we do that would be the equivalent of gunpowder?”
They came up with a chemical they added to the paint and when you wanted to remove the paint you did a light wash with a second chemical over the first one. That didn’t blow it off the house, but it allowed it to drop off.”
I definitely agree with Morreall’s logic. Humour has the power to relax a more static environment. And the more relaxed you are, the better you are able to tap into your natural creativity.
- Christian
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