Humor Breeds Camaraderie, Fosters Teamwork and Productivity

Camaraderie is “a spirit of good fellowship.” In the workplace, camaraderie improves morale, reduces turnover and improves performance. Here, a former schoolteacher describes camaraderie as it works in the classroom. Emulate her methods to build camaraderie in your workplace.

• Camaraderie allows a disparate collection of people to become a unified group with a shared objective. In the classroom, that objective is to learn. Camaraderie encourages students to open up and take risks – to break through their boundaries and explore new territory.
• Cultivate and nurture humor to generate camaraderie. Encourage your students to develop a group identity by letting them have fun together. Their attention will be diverted from the heavy task of “learning” and they will focus on enjoying themselves while supporting one another. They will associate the curriculum with the fun and quickly become committed to paying attention. Once they are relaxed and invested in the learning process, you can take them anywhere you want to go.
• Make it clear that your class is a place to have fun. Enforce ground rules that keep the class professional and productive, but give students plenty of leeway for infusing class activities with spirited excitement. When they are excited, they will learn faster and retain more.
• Let your students generate the laughs. They are responding to one another as they attempt to complete the challenging tasks you give them. Their humor is driven by personal relationships set within the context of your curriculum, so it is bound to be more relevant than the comic relief you might prepare ahead of time. Instead of working on being funny, concern yourself with designing activities that precipitate moments of humor while retaining their educational value.
• The best kind of humor is “just-in-time” humor. This is a spontaneous and contextual humor that arises naturally from your students and gives the class a little kick at just the right moment. “Just-in-time” humor can’t be forced. It has to happen on its own. And when it does, you can assume that the students are ready to learn effectively, voluntarily, on task with minds that are open and relaxed.
• As a trainer, your job is to provide a safe learning environment where camaraderie is built upon shared humor. It is not your job to be a comedian. Encourage your students to cultivate humor they can all identify with, which is unique to that particular group.

• When humor and goodwill lead to camaraderie in the classroom, students can discover their talent and capitalize on their potential more than at any other time. When students are having fun while feeling safe and supported, they break through existing boundaries and self-perceived limitations. This is when real learning takes place.

The workplace is a lot different from the classroom, you say? Of course it is. But they are similar in that both are groups of people gathering regularly with the goal of learning, growing and accomplishing together. And studies have shown that camaraderie and humor tend to contribute to learning and achievement. So maybe we need to loosen up a bit – and foster a culture that includes the stress-relieving and camaraderie-building benefits of laughter.