Do You Like Bacon?
Imagine, you work in a manufacturing plant and have been deemed an essential worker. The sun has barely begun to rise and you are met at the gates with a list of questions regarding your current state of health by two masked and goggled employees. Once you are let in for the day, you know that if you have to leave for any reason, you will not be allowed back in.
How will that first experience of the day make you feel? Stressed? Uneasy? How will those feelings impact how you communicate and work with your teammates? How will your decision-making skills be impacted?
Now imagine, you’re back at the gate with those two masked figures, who hold your ability to work that day in their hands, and at the end of the standard health-related questions, you are asked...
“Do you like bacon?!”
Regardless of your response, you are met with a comically exaggerated reaction and uproarious laughter. You find yourself smiling, maybe even laughing along. Now THAT, is the way to start your day.
This is exactly the approach that my father-in-law and his partner decided to take when volunteering for the morning health-check at Garlock Sealing Technologies, and what they’ve done is a gift for everyone who goes through that gate in the morning. It goes beyond a simple joke, they are helping the associates start their day on a positive note and quite possibly changing their brain state for the better.
When we are in a state of stress or feel uneasy/under threat (whether real or perceived), we enter into a state of fight/flight, we experience tunnel vision and are on high alert for other possible threats, therefore perceiving what would normally be a neutral comment or situation as an attack. Our ability to think clearly and creatively decreases and our emotional response goes up.
Laughter, on the other hand, activates the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for higher thought processes. Research shows us that laughing together, builds trust, helps us to deal with stress and allows for more creative and strategic thinking.
As a leader, how might you help your employees who are either still adjusting to working on virtual teams, are essential workers like the ones in this story or are getting ready to return to work, where they aren’t quite sure what to expect? How might you bring some levity to their day, so that they can bring their best, most creative and collaborative selves to you?
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If you are looking for a resource for virtual teams or teams who still need to keep their distance while in the office, I’ve created a workshop, Virtual Improv for Remote Team Building, to give teams an opportunity to do just this, laugh together, while learning how to communicate and collaborate in a more positive and creative way.