Book Review: Humor, Seriously by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas

Humor, Seriously: Why Humor is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas

Of all the weapons in the corporate arsenal, the most unwieldy and least wielded is humor. CEOs are not generally known for being clowns or spontaneous or creative. In a big company, the head has a lot of responsibility weighing on it. Can levity help lighten the load? That's the question this book examines in a very light-hearted and well-researched way.

The book starts with a look at humor and different styles that people tend toward (there's even a personal assessment at the back of the book and on the website, I came out as a Sweetheart). The other tendency they look at is the loss of humor, especially as we get older and wind up in a work setting. Employees want to be taken seriously, both the new people who might fear showing vulnerability and the old people who also might fear vulnerability. But humor has some great benefits, easing tense situations and building interpersonal relationships. Any workplace can benefit from better-connected individuals. Connections between co-workers, between companies and clients, and even between rivals can be built through humor and will foster trust and understanding. The authors document such successes using real-life examples, data, and cartoons. The book also examines pitfalls with using humor and how to handle bad situations caused by mishandled humor (e.g. jokes that are in bad taste for a variety of reason, the famous "Gray Areas" of humor). 

The humanizing effects of humor are valuable outside of corporate/work life as is described in "Chapter 7.5" of the book. A lot of other books have talked about the work/life balance and the authors here ably demonstrate the worth of humor in all our human interactions.

The casual, jokey tone (what other tone could they have had?) fits well with the ideas. The tone also helps to get through the never ending lists of researchers who have done studies that support their arguments. The balance between data and anecdotes is good, making this very readable and very convincing.

Recommended.