Pandora Amp Finding the Funny Sklar
How to Find the Funny in Any Challenge
Last week I shared 6 Ways to Improve How You Solve Problems and number six was "Find the Funny". The subsequent questions I get is "where do I find the funny?" and "how do I find the funny?" so I decided to share some techniques for finding the funny in any situation, even those that are well… problems.
So where is the funny?
Humor is everywhere! Comedians have tackled topics like death, sex, money, disease, so it's very possible to find the humor in your server that's down or your latte that's too cold. When it comes to finding the humor in a situation there are a few places it hides:
The Problem Itself.
Consider the problem. Some problems are inherently funny just by virtue of them being, well, considered problems. These can be those first-world, high-class problems, like that cold latte I mentioned earlier. Sometimes it's just ridiculous that we're even experiencing the problem that we are encountering or that we're even considering it a problem.
For example, when I was working at an at the time little known startup in San Francisco our office was in a fancy building filled with hedge funds, finance firms, and George Lucas Films. We had a Starbucks on the basement floor of the building. One day the entire building started to smell like rotten poop. You may be wondering, "has she smelled rotten poop before?" Well, kind of. I recognized the smell because it mimicked a smell that we had at one of our gelato shops when our grease trap was due for a cleaning. To make a longer story short turns out it was the grease trap at Starbucks that was reeking the smell into our hallways. The funny in this?! Imagine a bunch of finance guys (because let's be real, most of them were guys) in suits working through this awful smell. And getting all bothered by their work being disturbed and coming up with all sorts of reasons for the smell and excuses. It was funny!
Timing.
Sometimes the humor is in the timing of when the problem happened. Did your head engineer quit the day before you are about to head to vacation? Did you finally get a stack of oranges organized before someone comes in and picks one that destroys the entire stack?
Humor in timing happens when the order of events or timing of the problem can seem surprising or ironic.
For example, I joined another, at the time, little known startup to work directly for the CMO, who had been recruiting me for the past year to help this company launch and grow its product. Three days in, first thing in the morning I get a call from my boss, the CMO, telling me that he had just been fired that morning. Talk about funny timing!
Which leads me to the third place humor hides…
Irony.
Like the song "isn't it ironic?" illustrates, life is filled with ironic situations if we just pay attention. Many problems that arise, like a "black fly in your Chardonnay", are ironic in nature. That's funny! Or it can be at least, if we let it be funny.
For example, a refrigeration company with broken refrigerators. An ice cream business when the product has melted. A company that sells team collaboration software when their team's collaboration sucks.
In the Possible Solutions.
One of, what can be, the joys of experiencing problems is brainstorming possible solutions. And what an opportunity to bring some humor into play! Brainstorm off the wall, wacky, fun, out there ways to solve the problem.
For example, our power goes out and we're a business that sells gelato. If we don't get the gelato into freezers it will all melt. What are some of the wacky ways we could solve that problem? We could put the gelato out in the streets and start singing songs about free gelato, asking people walking by to please help us by eating the gelato. We could bring all the gelato to an empty swimming pool and leave it to melt naturally and then hold a gelato pool party with all of our employees and friends.
Well I smiled and laughed writing this, so I hope it inspires a smile and laughter for you and as you apply humor to your business and life challenges. What challenges are you facing? Share them if you want some help turning lemons into funny looking (or tasting) lemonade!
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Source: https://medium.com/improv4/how-to-find-the-funny-in-any-challenge-a5ed5b9f3077
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