Sometimes work just gets too hard and heavy. Last year I as training for my Motorcycle Safety Foundation RiderCoach certification, which consisted of around 20 days of training before being let loose on students. The boot camp portion was 7 days living with our examiners/trainers and 9 individuals unknown to each other.
The project goal was to get us all through, and soon it was obvious that this was not an individual effort, but a team one. We also had a good range of humanity represented on the course. Two BPM project managers (can you believe that), a Boston motorcycle cop, Photographer, Federal Special agent, writers, factory workers …. you get the picture.
After 2 days of being continually informed of our incompetence we started to bond. Humor started to come into the picture, firstly for some comic relief, then to maintain our sanity.
Often in projects, the pressure can become unbearable if we don’t humanize our work, and humor is one of the best ways of dealing with it. Use it and you will be surprised at how it helps.
