Bad situations are no laughing matter . . . or are they? Laughter can be used to relax people, diffuse explosive situations, and put people in a receptive mood.

In the HBO television series Band of Brothers, Easy Company is training late at night. As they run uphill along a trail, one of the soldiers asks for permission to speak. Lieutenant Dick Winters grants him permission. The private wants to know why Easy Company is always the marching, running, and doing extra training while the other companies are not. Lt. Winters asks him what he thinks. The private states that he thinks the company commander hates Easy Company. Lt. Winters responds by telling him that the company commander doesn't hate Easy Company. Lt. Winters then clarifies his statement, "He hates you." The soldiers all laugh. They know it's not true. With a smile they accept the punishing training and work harder.

Writer and corporate trainer Don Doman tells a story of when he worked at The Boeing Airplane Company years before respect became standard operating procedure. "A friend of mine felt he had been insulted. Max, had traveled from Texas to Washington to work for Boeing, which paid good wages. He looked like he was one step away from violence." A supervisor had called him Gomez. "My name is Rodriguez," Max explained with rolling Rs to give the name the proper Spanish pronunciation to the supervisor. A little while later the supervisor called to him, "Hey, Gonzalez." "My name is Rodriguez," my friend explained again this time with growling and rolling Rs to the supervisor, who went about giving orders not noting the squinting eyes. The supervisor moved off to bother someone else. Max was getting madder by the minute. Max looked like he could do some damage. Although he was of Mexican decent, he stood over six feet tall. He was fast and strong. He had played football in high school.

Don didn't really care about the supervisor, but he did care about his friend. He had a wife and child and much of his life before him. Don spoke up, "Max, how do you pronounce your name?" "Rrrrrrrrrrodrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriguez," Max snarled. Don smirked and said, "That's funny, up here we pronounce it s-t." Max stopped in his tracks. Turned his head and looked Don in the eye. Don stared back and then smiled. Max burst out laughing. The hurt was gone and the violence forgotten. "We both knew the supervisor was not a good manager. Max is the one who would have been in trouble," Don revealed, "We got a good chuckle at his stupidity and went back to work." If this happened today there would be lawsuits.

During the Second Punic War, Hannibal retreated from the Roman army until he found a place where he wanted to fight. He stopped and turned his army of Carthaginians, Spaniards, and Africans to face the much larger Roman force. Hannibal positioned his men and then they all watched as the Romans brought more and more troops onto the fields of Cannae. "My god will they never stop coming," commented a commander by the name of Gisko with a little fear and awe. Hannibal said, "Yes, the Romans count their men in the tens of thousands . . . but not one of them is named Gisko." The joke was passed up and down the line with guffaws and rough humor. The message was clear, "The Romans are not us. They are the ones who should be scared." Hannibal wasn't worried. He had confidence in his men. They were well trained and Hannibal knew how to use them. Outnumbered 77,000 to 35,000, Hannibal slowly unveiled his strategy and the ability of his army to the enemy and surrounded them. Barely 5,000 Romans escaped. None of them were laughing.

Humor is a great tool to diffuse bad situations and it's an even better training tool. You can use humor to view corporate training situations from teamwork to customer service. For years the master of corporate training has been John Cleese. Selections from his "From Hell" series are always a great way to start off a meeting or seminar. My favorite is Customers From Hell.

"The John Cleese training videos always add a shot of humor to seminars and workshops no matter what you are looking for: sales training, motivaion, or team building."
- Promotion copy for John Cleese Training Videos

By poking fun at different situations, employees have a chance to see the humor in their own actions as well as those of others. Laughter relaxes. It changes the mood. People become more receptive. It can diffuse bad situations, and that's no joke.