Over the last two days I’ve had the great pleasure of leading a ‘Time to Think’ Facilitator Course. This means spending many hours with a small group of people linked by our interest in understanding more about how we think, noticing what it is that produces our most insightful and intelligent thinking, and then going on to replicate those conditions deliberately to promote great thinking. Which often includes having a good laugh.
Every time I run one of these courses I notice how everything is easier, brighter and faster when the atmosphere is light. We know nothing improves a tricky situation, a ‘stuck’ moment more than a laugh, but more than that, laughter is a thinking enhancer. It’s a great natural aid to learning. It triggers hormones in our brain circuitry that actively support the linking of neuron to neuron, creating new pathways that will lead to what we will experience as new insights and ideas.
(And shared laughter promotes empathy, so people who laugh together will feel closer to each other and work better together).
Given all this, and the fact that laughter comes free, you’d think that it would be encouraged in our places of employment, in our schools and halls of learning, everywhere. Yet that’s not what generally happens. It’s odd, isn’t it, that something so beneficial to our minds, our performance and relationships can be seen as somehow unsettling, lacking in gravitas. Anti-serious.
Odd when you consider how cynicism and sarcasm are so common, a totally accepted part of daily communication in the workplace. These two come high on the list of known thinking inhibitors, whose effect on brain chemistry is only ever negative, stimulating defense mechanisms that shut down our neural pathways and inhibit our capacity to think well and find answers.
What can you do to promote the natural learning enhancer in your life and work? Let me know!