Why Your Startup Needs Some Laughter
The way we build our environments is crucial because it will either line you up for success, or for a succession of nights spent crying on the floor of a shower stall. Trust me... We've all heard this though right? Culture, culture, culture.
Well, here's some science for you Champ. See, our brains are designed to feed off of the inputs from our surroundings. The brains limbic system, our emotional centre, is an open loop, which means that it actually gathers information from the outside world and adjusts accordingly. Your circulatory system on the other hand, it doesn't give a shit what's going on around it, it's playing by it's own rules. Now you might be thinking, how the hell does Borys know all this? A) I like to read, and much more so, B) Because this man devoted his life to figuring it out. I'll let him have some credit. How does this impact your work life in anyway, shape or form? Well, of course, we've all heard the old adage that laughter is contagious. What you may not know though is that within a community like an office, anxiety, although is does spread, doesn't do so as quickly, and depression doesn't spread at all. Ever noticed how you're drawn to upbeat people much more so than then sad ones? So if you build a team of positive people, they will be drawn to each other, and attract others much more so than a group of people playing Smiths records on repeat. In short, they'll be happier working together, and that will resonate. Generally speaking, it's not someone's fault they're anxious/sad/depressed. There are solutions, or paths to leave those feelings behind though. Maybe the person hasn't been able to figure that out for themselves yet. They need to realize that not only should they seek help, but they need to. Their livelihoods depend on them finding a way out before the people at work conclude that they're just assholes. If co-workers don't understand the personal struggle, they're likely to develop a bad, undeserved rep. How will that person ever gain their respect and become a leader if their attitude isn't attractive? Luckily, the good people at Yale School of Management have a tip. Try smiling. Smiles almost always get the other person to smile back. Don't fake it though. And don't ever do this to seem upbeat.
Find genuine reasons to smile. If you can't, well I've been there before too, and I'm sorry, I know how awful that can be. Go back a step and seek help. Why smile? Well, gather around while grandpa Borys recounts something he read. Scientists speculate that smiles and laughter evolved as a way to cement alliances. If you think about that in the context of a startup, it means that you guys need to put away the stressful shit once in a while, and laugh with each other every now and then. If the pressure's too intense, you might, sorry, you 100% will definitely start to develop unreasonable and unwarranted tension amongst each other. You'll read more deeply into situations than would ever be necessary. Break the damn tension. Play a game of ping pong. Is it 8pm? Throw in a Rob Schneider movie. Laugh. I don't care what you say, early Schneider was a comedic genius before Sandler put him in every piece of garbage imaginable.
As a leader, if you don't hear any laughter in your office, you're not doing your job. When I wasn't this old, my hockey team would go out and build bonds amongst ourselves outside of the rink. We'd see movies together. We'd go for dinners. We'd go shoot each other with paintballs. We'd ride the bus to some terrible town far away for games and use that time to tell stories and build inside jokes. Inside jokes are especially great because they strengthen that us vs them mentality that builds super strong relationships within your team. Do that. Take your team on a road trip. Why not? Who says you can't do that? Your 'mature' persona prevents you from being spontaneous? Or pull a prank on a another office in your building. Shoot a video of it. Put it up on youtube. Go viral. Shoot any type of video with your team, except porn. Have you ever been on set or watched bloopers. Think about how hard those people are laughing. Get your people laughing together. The bonds they will form are priceless. Yes I know that you're super passionate about whatever you're working on, but if it's too intense, you're taking the wrong approach to building a team. Inspire laughter. Find a way, but whatever you do, for god's sake, please don't become the office comedian. Don't ever strive to be "the funniest guy in the office." Please don't be the guy staging a poor reenactment of a Louis CK bit, or worse, one of Chris Rock's most famous bits. Laugh. Life's short. The whole concept of a joke is to set someone thinking in one direction, then stop and completely blindside them with something they hadn't seen coming. Isn't that life? You only get so much time to do something incredible, and then one day, out of nowhere you just disappear. Think about that. That's a great joke in itself, albeit a cruel one, that's pretty funny.