Stanford MBA students outside class. GSB photo

Newest Class at Stanford: The Humor of Business

Students are learning the serious business of humor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The class, Humor: Serious Business, offers a crash course on the role of humor in the workplace. Students learn how to apply techniques from comedians and play with incorporating levity into otherwise unfunny moments.

“We’ve found that humor—this mindset of levity—is perhaps one of the best ways to mitigate all of those possible regrets,” Jennifer Aaker, General Atlantic Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and co-founder of the course, says. “It allows you to be bolder because you’re able to diffuse tension more nimbly. It allows you to be more present because you’re noticing the truths that exist in your life and sharing them with levity. By definition, you’re not taking yourself too seriously. We often say that when humor exists, love is not far behind.”

DEEPEN RELATIONSHIPS, ELEVATE CREATIVTY

Part of the appeal of Humor: Serious Business is the direct correlation between humor and creativity. As Aaker says, the more you laugh, the more opportunity for creativity there is.

“There’s a study that shows that if individuals watch a short video with humor involved, versus a neutral one, they’re twice as likely to solve a creativity challenge,” Aaker says. “It’s not that there’s a direct relationship between humor and creativity. It’s that tension is reduced when people laugh together.”

Naomi Bagdonas, Lecturer at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and co-founder of the course, says humor can have a profound effect on deepening relationships in the workplace.

“You’re investing in a moment that becomes part of the corporal memory of what it’s like to work at this organization,” Bagdonas says. “It has an enormous ripple effect on how people treat each other, how psychologically safe they feel, and how much they’re willing and able to play with each other. A beautiful research finding is that even the anticipation of laughter lowers people’s cortisol levels. So, if you’re walking into a meeting where you know joy is going to be part of the experience, just knowing that means that you’ll walk in feeling less stressed and therefore able to make more creative associations in your brain.”

STORIES OF TRANSFORMATION

As part of the curriculum, Aaker and Bagdonas ask students to write down and share six-word stories of their lives. Students are prompted to answer the question: What were the important turning points in my life?

In return, Bagdonas says, students share profound stories of transformation that bring people together.

“Then, people get curious with each other,” Bagdonas says. “The other reason this is powerful is that you can take this framing and apply it to many other things. Leaders we work with kick off calls by saying: ‘We’re going to kick off with everyone telling the six-word story of _____.’ We even have people use it as a strategic device, saying: ‘What is our six-word story of success for 2024?’ This exercise is powerful because it makes story accessible and makes giving small windows into people’s humanity a lot easier.”

Sources: Fast Company, Humor Seriously, Stanford Graduate School of Business

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