Increasing service standards mean polite service is no longer satisfactory to customers; modern service comes with a genuine smile.
It’s much easier to work with happy people, and a sense of humour helps any kind of work go better.
Nowadays organisational culture and external branding are intrinsically linked by an increasingly cynical public.
Ask anyone about the people they like doing business with, and words like 'we can have a laugh together' are often used.
Laughter breaks down barriers and builds trust.
Talking of building 'happy staff brands' is no fad – it is just bringing back to the foreground what it is to be human and doing business with other humans.
People tend to prefer to deal with happy people.
Laughter creates a better mood by releasing tension, anger, frustration, fear or anxiety – it's a powerful form of catharsis or 'letting go'.
They are called e-'motion's because they indicate a need for movement and release.
Then it is much easier to get on with the task!
Time scarcity is a top issue – the feeling that there just is not enough time in the day.
But the fact is, there is exactly the same amount of time in each day as Einstein, Mozart and Gandhi had.
And the answer is in not how to manage time so much as in how to manage ourselves better.
We can let our tasks weigh us down, but as Monty Python said 'levity is the opposite to gravity'.
Have you noticed how many of those who have achieved great things and live with a lot of stress are great laughers?
