I could do with a laugh right now….

One of the characteristics of great coaches and great places to work is that they have Fizz and Buzz. Fizz is the enjoyment people get out of the tasks they do. Buzz is the enjoyment from the people around them as they do those tasks. Playfulness, good humour and laughter are three closely related functions that contribute to creativity, energy, trust and the state of being in flow.

When learning to be a stand-up comedian, one of the key lessons I learned was that there is a big difference between trying to be funny and the spontaneous generation of humour. The foundation of infectious humour is unbounded curiosity, resulting from seeking and recognising incongruity. When we laugh at ourselves, we enable others to expand their own curiosity and recognise their own incongruities.

Ingela Camba Ludlow’s new book, Humour in Psychoanalysis and Coaching Supervision opens a houseful of windows into the mechanisms that underlie effective use of humour. Although aimed at supervisors and therapists, it is equally insight-provoking for coaches and mentors.

As usual, here are a few questions to stimulate thinking:

• How often in a day do you laugh at yourself?
• Do you laugh mostly with people or at people?
• How do you as a coach stimulate playfulness in your clients?
• How might your need to stick to process get in the way of the client’s creative humour?

David Clutterbuck 2022