Safety is a serious topic and some people feel strongly that humor has no place in safety. But if the participants in the training are not engaging in the serious content of the lesson then they won’t retain the information. Engagement is essential in education, and humor can grab trainees’ attention, helping them remember the key points that can keep them safe.
But what happens if you’re not naturally funny? Don’t worry, we’re here to help with ten tips that anyone can use to inject humor into your safety training.
Start by thinking about humor.
When you think of humor, it’s often a fond contemplation because humor makes you feel good. In the same light, safety training should make you feel good because it’s meant to keep you out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, this isn’t often the case, which is why including humor in safety training can be a game-changer.
Practice your bit.
While some people seem to naturally be funny, it’s a skill they’ve probably been working on their whole life. That’s right: just like other soft skills, humor is a talent that requires a lot of practice. With the right preparation and mindset, you can get laughs out of safety training or in any situation where you’re speaking in front of other people.
Believe in the training benefits of humor.
Adding humor in safety training can:
- Relieve stress
- Improve learning
- Inspire a good mood
- Increase participation
- Create allies
- Define the learning environment
- Positively change the perception of the trainer
Comedy requires confidence. By remembering why you’re sprinkling humor into your training, you’ll have the self-assurance to reliably score laughs for all the right reasons.
Know when too much is too much.
The key to life is moderation. It’s also the key to humor in safety training. Since you’re not performing a stand-up comedy routine, you need to remember this. There is such a thing as too much humor, especially in safety training. Don’t lose sight of the overall message you’re trying to deliver. It’s nice to get a laugh (and once you make trainees laugh, you’ll be greedy for more), but the laugh is only meant to help sustain your training, so you need to know your limits.
Channel your inner comedian.
You don’t have to be a comedian to use humor in a professional setting—it would certainly help, but here’s the secret: as long as you have a sense of humor, you can inject it into your training presentations effectively with practice. If you find something funny, there’s a good chance others will, too.
Use subtle humor to make a not-so-subtle impression.
People are preconditioned to believe they need to be stoic when presented with an important topic. It’s crucial to establish that it’s OK to laugh. When you’re infusing humor into a topic as critical as safety, you need to make sure you’re not trying to make the subject itself funny. Humor is not intended to take away from the seriousness of the topic. But it will ensure you aren’t leaving your audience depressed when the outcome of an impactful story tugs at their heartstrings. Subtle humor will keep the audience engaged and bring them back up from any potential lows in the training.
Be objective—but don’t object to humor.
Safety training doesn’t often inspire excitement because it’s such a serious topic. When you think of regulations, policies and procedures, it’s easy to become overwhelmed before the training even begins. And the stress that accompanies those feelings is detrimental to learning. According to University of California – Irvine researchers, short-term stress lasting as little as a few hours can impair brain-cell communication in areas associated with learning and memory.
Enter humor.
Knock knock…
Who’s there?
Hugh…
Hugh who?
Hugh-more makes people smile.
Humor creates a positive environment that will not only promote learning but also engage participants and help them retain the information they’re being taught. More specifically, humor creates a physiological response that decreases stress hormones and increases positive mood and participation. Since safety training is often implemented after something bad happens, the stress relief and increased participation that humor provides are vital.
Establish a club of people to laugh at your jokes.
Humor also creates allies. When you share humor with trainees, it’s like you’re letting them into a club. As members of that club, trainees will bond over laughing at the same thing, which increases their engagement. In comedy and in training, there’s nothing better than an enthusiastic audience.
Include everyone!
Humor makes training more enjoyable and increases the amount of learning that sticks with participants. But it can also alienate people if one feels like they’re not in on the joke. Make sure the humor in your training includes everyone so that they all benefit from the positive effects of laughing while they learn.
A positive outlook
The perception of the trainer is positively influenced by wit or humor, which establishes a good rapport between the trainer and trainees. Conversely, if there’s a lack of humor altogether, the opinion of the trainer can be diminished regardless of the value of the information provided. By injecting humor into training using these ten tips, you can look forward to positive sessions where trainees are enjoying themselves and taking in the information that can keep them out of harm’s way.
This blog post is an excerpt that was adapted from Seriously Funny: How to Use Humor in Safety, which reviews the what, where, why and how to do humor in safety presentations in an easy-to-digest guide. Download it for tips, tricks and useful advice to add humor to workplace safety presentations.