Fabio Sala has done some research on the importance of levity and in fact we used some of his results in the book (The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up). Most notably we cited the work he published a few years back in the Harvard Business Review which essentially said that leaders with a sense of humor move up the corporate ladder faster than their peers. Astute Levity disciple Max Brown, himself a world class speaker/lecturer/trainer recently forwarded me more “heady” (the pun will make sense shortly) data in support of workplace levity from the Sept. 08 HBR including some Sala research:

(Speaking of the human brain) “There’s a subset of mirror neurons whose only job is to detect other people’s smiles and laughter, prompting smiles and laughter in return.  A boss who is self-controlled and humorless will rarely engage those neurons in his team members, but a boss who laughs and sets an easygoing tone puts those neurons to work, triggering spontaneous laughter and knitting his team together in the process.  A bonded group is one that performs well, as our colleague Fabio Sala has shown in his research.  He found that top-performing leaders elicited laughter from their subordinates three times as often, on average, as did midperforming leaders.  Being in a good mood, other research finds, helps people take in information effectively and respond nimbly and creatively.  In other words, laughter is serious business.”
Harvard Business Review, Sep. 08

Isn’t it a great feeling when everything you believe/know to be true gets another shot of academic validation?

The fact is, people need to laugh. When they do, they’re at their best. It’s as if a good laugh shakes out the dust, shakes off the rust, and cleans out the pipes, resetting our mind and energy. If you lead people, laugh with them. Bond your team together with levity and laughter and watch how performance improves.

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