Make 'em laugh: Using humour in training

Dawn Smith looks at the link between humour and learning, and how laughter can be used in the training room to help make the message stick.

The use of laughter to aid learning is of course nothing new. The king of silly walks, John Cleese, helped to pioneer the use of humour in corporate training back in the 1970s, and probably laughed all the way to the bank earlier this year, when Video Arts - the video training company he helped to found - was sold to Tinopolis plc for £2.4m. But the power of humour is becoming increasingly valued in the business world, and there is a growing trend towards trainers and facilitators acquiring the skills that will help them to introduce humour into sessions as they see fit, rather than simply putting on a video and sitting back to watch.

Joe Hoare, who runs laughter facilitation courses for professionals who want to use humour in the workplace, has noticed a recent increase in the number of trainers from the corporate sector who want to learn how to use humour in their own sessions.