Humor Injections: A Humor and Healthcare Blog

Archive for Leaders

American Idol, Ellen Degeneres, and Humor

30 Jul, 2010  1 Comment

We learned today that comedian and talk show host Ellen Degeneres will not return next year as a judge on American Idol.  She indicated that it was not a good fit and that it was too time consuming.  Plus, she said she did not like hurting contestant’s feelings.  It’s a shame that she’s leaving because she had the potential of being a great job.  Potential, in my opinion, that was not realized.

Here’s my take on her role in American Idol.  She was a great judge of music and character but she wasn’t funny enough.

As a fan of comedy and American Idol, when I heard that she was a judge, I was thrilled.  I love her quirky, down-to-earth humor and I am mesmerized by her stand-up routine.  But halfway through the American Idol season, I was disappointed that she wasn’t using the humor for which she’s known.  It’s as if she wanted to appear more judgey than funny.  For what’s it worth, I’ve heard Al Franken is doing the same thing in his new role as  US Senator.  Apparently, he doesn’t want to be too funny or else the other politicians won’t take him seriously.  Puh-lease.  We don’t take politicians seriously to begin with.  But I digress.

Here’s the deal.  Humor is a gift.  A gift that should keep on giving.  Ellen Degeneres and Al Franken have natural talents that most of us would die for.  They should use those talents for their benefit and for ours.

I’m not suggesting that every comment Ellen Degeneres makes should be hilarious and I’m not suggesting that Al Franken do an SNL skit on the Senate Floor.  What I would suggest, however, is that they use their humor to engage, entertain, and reinforce their message.  If they do their job well AND they’re funny, viewers and voters will flock to support them.  It’s that simple.  And you can do the same thing in your job.

If any of you saw Harry Connick, Jr. on American Idol, you saw an excellent example of how it’s done.  He had great advice, great stage presence, and he was absolutely hilarious.  His banter made you like him even more.

Those eight of you who read my blog regularly should sit up and listen.  If you want to have a greater impact in your job or your life, consider tapping into humor as a powerful communication tool.

Remember what playwright George Bernard Shaw said, “If you’re going to tell people the truth, make them laugh.  Otherwise, they’ll kill you.”

Ron

What to Do When That’s the Way it Is

8 Jun, 2010  No Comment

Recently, a prospective client told me that her organization did not have a budget to hire outside speakers for their conferences. When I offered her a free subscription to my FUNsultations newsletter, hoping that the articles would be a cost-effective alternative to educate her members about the value of humor, she said, “We don’t have a place for humor here. Our association is very serious. We focus on legislative and regulatory issues.”

My first thought was to hop in the car, drive the 2500 miles that separated us, and smack her upside the head for wasting her life. Luckily, I had a dental appointment the next day and couldn’t reschedule.

I readily admit that it’s common for associations to tell me that they can’t afford my fee because they’re required to use their funds for topics that more directly affect their members – such as healthcare reform, reimbursement issues, regulatory changes, etc. But when someone tells me that they don’t want free educational information because the organization is too serious, I just want to weep. And let me be clear. I rarely weep.

This issue is not about the seriousness of the work. It’s about the misguided perspective of the leadership. I worked in hospice care for ten years. I doubt there are many jobs more serious than that. But our leaders appreciated the need to balance the seriousness of the work with fun. They would never discourage staff from taking advantage of an opportunity to enjoy a bit of humor.

No job is so serious that we can’t find the humor and fun in it. Even funeral directors have fun. They just do it when nobody’s looking.

So what do you do if you work in an organization that does not support fun? Here are a few suggestions:

  1. Run for your life. Get another job. Do anything you can to find a healthy, balanced, work environment. In 20 years, you’ll be glad you did.  Or…
  2. Try to chip away at the rock of seriousness.  I believe big strides begin with small steps.  Don’t try to turn a serious organization into humor central in one day.  Start slow by adding some humor to meetings, emails, presentations, etc.
  3. Develop a fun committee to look for ways to integrate fun into the seriousness of the work.  It’s amazing what a happy hour, a cookout, or a pizza party can do to change the environment.
  4. Find an advocate on the leadership team.  Usually, there is one person who has a tendency to be more fun, more irreverent, and more open to new ideas.  This is the person to bring on board when it comes to making work more enjoyable.
  5. If nothing else, take care of yourself.  Don’t let a heavy organization bring you down.  Make sure you maintain your own ability to lighten up.

The world is full of “downers” who want us to be on their level.  While we may think that our career is benefiting from a serious workplace, our life is not.  Remember that we all end up dead no matter what we did during our lives.  But those who are the least dead are the ones who really lived.  Or something like that.

Ron

Tina Fey Deserves the Mark Twain Award

26 May, 2010  No Comment

Tina Fey is a brilliant writer and comedian. I’m proud to say that she is also a graduate of my alma mater, the University of Virginia. It was announced that she will receive the 13th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center in DC. Previous recipients include Bill Cosby, Steve Martin, and Lily Tomlin.

Fey’s work speaks for itself but she demonstrated her talent when responding to the award, she said that she was thrilled but assumes that Betty White was “disqualified for steroid use.”

That’s a perfect example of how to use humor to make your words just bit more memorable!

Ron

Testing for Tobacco

17 Feb, 2010  1 Comment

I recently read where some health systems will refuse to hire individuals whose blood tests positive for nicotine.  In other words, if someone is a smoker and they only smoke at home,  not at work, they could be prevented from working in some health systems.

While I understand that organizations want a healthy workplace and healthy employees, and I am in no way promoting the nasty habit of smoking, I think this is insane.

Do we really want to start analyzing an individual’s personal habits as a prerequisite for jobs?  Will this lead to testing for presence of Ben & Jerry ice cream in fat people?  Will we analyze blood to find out if someone drank a beer after its born-on date?  And what about all the caffeine-addicted Starbucks fans?  Will they be eliminated from competing because of a buildup of latte in their blood?

Between you and me, I think we’re testing for the wrong things.  There are qualities that have a far greater impact on the work environment than smoking and bad health habits.

So, to provide a fair and balanced perspective, I suggest that healthcare recruiters develop blood tests for the following:

  • The presence of the fish from the previous night’s dinner.  These people might actually reheat leftover fish in the microwave at work – which is not good for anyone.
  • The presence of an OCD gene for people who line up pantry items according to alphabet.  These people will just annoy everyone and end up working in Quality.
  • The codependency gene.  Ninety percent of the healthcare workforce is already codependent.  We don’t need any more.  If that’s OK with you, that is.
  • The birth defect known as Non-Healthcare Related Executive Syndrome.  If you’ve never worked anywhere near a bedside, you should not be allowed to be in healthcare management.  You’ll just use too many graphs and charts.
  • The Day-shift-a-phobic gene.  If you’ve worked nights for 30 years, there is just something wrong with you.
  • The Phlebotomist with depth perception issues.  I don’t need to be stuck…again.

I believe that if we begin the screening with these folks, the smoking problem will take care of itself.

Ron

Nursing Homes. Have a Little Fun, Won’t You?

28 Jan, 2010  1 Comment

A report appeared in today’s paper stating that one-fifth of the nursing homes in the country get poor ratings.  As the population gets older, nursing homes will be the final leg of the journey for many more Americans down the road.

So, here’s the deal.  Because of the low pay and less-than-optimal working conditions in many nursing homes, the facilities will continue to get poor ratings until the directors and owners wake up to the reality of how they attract and keep good staff.  Basically, there are two ways.

One, pay them a lot of money.  It will never happen so let’s move on to the way two.

Two, create an environment where people want to work.  It’s that simple.  Be a desirable employer.

When I was a Manager of Counseling Services at Hospice of Northern Virginia, I could not pay my employees what they were worth – nor what apparently the nurses were worth.  It was the nature of the beast.  So, I had to supplement the salary by creating a workplace where employees felt valued and supported.

I did this through recognition, supervisory counseling, and by creating the most fun department in our hospice.  Even though time flies whether you’re having fun or not, time definitely flies when you ARE having fun.  By making meetings more fun, birthdays more fun, and generally trying to create a light atmospere amongst the heaviness of hospice, I believe we had a department where people wanted to work.

The result?  We attracted and kept good people.

So, to my colleagues in the world of nursing homes, assisted living, and residential care, please try to understand that you will probably never attract good employees with money but you could attract them with fun-ny.

Ron

Obama Humbles into Nobel Peace Prize

11 Dec, 2009  No Comment

I was very interested in seeing how President Obama accepted his Nobel Peace Prize yesterday.  While Obama is a certainly a noble person, he probably has not yet lived up to the Nobel-ity of previous Peace Prize recipients.  At the same time, it’s not easy to say “no thanks, I’m not worthy” to the Nobel Prize Committee.  And let’s be honest.  If any one of us had won this award, we would secretly do a happy dance whether we were worthy or not.  Heck, I get pretty excited when I win $2 on a scratch-off lottery ticket.  So, while it may have been a bit premature, congratulations to the President.

But in my humble, non-Nobel prize winning opinion, he missed an opportunity in his acceptance speech (full text) for a bit of humor.  He definitely took the high road and acknowledge that there had been criticism of his receiving the award and acknowledged that compared to previous winners, his “accomplishments are slight.”  However, I think he should have taken this one step further and used a bit of humor to show both his humility and his appreciation of that criticism.

All too often, leaders are defensive about how they are perceived.  CEO’s want to look serious, powerful, and in control – even in healthcare!  However, it’s the humble, self aware, and human leaders who also possess the necessary leadership skills that earn more respect.  Qualities which, by the way, I think Obama possesses.

Humor is a great path to these qualities.  For instance, when a speaking colleague was emceeing an event and was so funny that the dignitaries onstage lost their composure, he didn’t realize that they were laughing at his what he said.  Flustered by this, but not knowing what was going on, he said, “I feel like the fifteen year old boy who was parking with a beautiful eighteen year old girl.  He said, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m sure proud to be here.’”  The audience burst into sustained laughter.  He had recognized his discomfort and acknowledged it with a bit of humor.

This is a great lesson for all of us.  When we’re embarrassed in public, caught off guard by a tough question, or have to accept an award for which we do not feel worthy, a little bit of humor will diffuse the scrutiny and show that we all experience these moments of human-ness.

Ron