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It's a sobering statistic that all employers should be aware of. According to a 2007 article by Roberts Wesleyan College student, Nicole Fink, employees with low moral cost the American workforce about $350 billion each year through health-related issues, missing work, and general unhappiness at work.

The article goes on to describe good workplace morale as a state of mind of employees displayed through hard work, cordiality, confidence and discipline,

Sadly, several unswerving issues cause low employee morale. A 2006 study from Rasmussen Reports (a company that collects and distributes public polling information-) 92 percent of managers claim to be doing an "excellent" job supervising employees.

Regrettably, only 67 percent of employees agree. Not only are managers one of the main culprits of low morale, some don't seem to realize they could be the root of the problem!

How does this all come about? Simply put, poor leadership is often due to a lack of communication, micromanaging and yes, discrimination. According to eWeek, positive leadership and poor leadership are what determine the tone of an office, directly improving or deteriorating employee morale. In a nutshell:

Poor Moral Poor Productivity = Poor Customer Service & Profit Loss!

Common sense dictates that employees with little chance of advancement are the ones that usually are saturated with low morale. With multi-cultural backgrounds making up today's domestic workforce, many employees feel left out of reaching their American Dream of fulfillment.

Whether it's true or not, this is a problem many employers are going to have to address during uncertain economic times for years to come.

Like the Energizer Bunny, this low moral epidemic keeps going and recycling itself without any end in sight. The secret to stopping this advancement is through the therapeutic power of humor and …

Effective Team Building Within the Organization!

Perceptive bosses are putting forth energies into effective team building (or team identity) at all levels of the company.

Studies show that when individual workers feel they're part of a team effort or the bigger picture of a company (or department), they usually take action in helping their respective teams reach their goals!

One of the fastest and most powerful ways to build a unified team is through humor.

6 Reasons Having a Humorous & Fun Atmosphere Helps Moral and Productivity at Work!

Humor has shown to be the glue that effectively bonds management and workers, and keeps their productivity firing on all cylinders and creates a less stressful environment.

HUMOR helps remove the challenges that separates management from other employees!
HUMOR, (when used correctly), helps build trust within any organization!
HUMOR opens communication between workers of all races, creeds and colors.
HUMOR boosts morale ten-fold within any size company!
HUMOR reduces stress!
HUMOR exponential boosts creativity within teams.
More impressively, it's been shown that managers in a variety of work settings who initiate humor have revealed to be more likely to become an integral part of a socially cohesive group aka "The Team!"1

If Ronald Regan was "The Great Communicator!" Then humor is "The Great Equalizer" between management and staff! Joking and forms of fun banter is a proven way to breaking down barriers between bosses (without losing their authoritative tone) and workers.

In addition, team building through proven Improvisational Game exercises can bring a synergy between staff where everyone comes up with ideas and strategies.

These same strategies that helps every puts people into comprehensive problem solving mode… as opposed to combative "I-have-to-be-heard-whether-my-solution-works-or-not" mode!

Improvisational Team Building Games can succinctly

help get workers to act "in the moment" and focus better at accomplishing tasks
show workers how to successfully partner on project and create spontaneity in the workplace…
Give your team the necessary techniques to become better listeners…
Help bosses and staff get in the right frame of mind in order to achieve breakthrough in thought…
Helps bring deep trust between workers and management…
The plain truth is this: Companies that want to overtake their competition must learn to be nimble in the market place and take advantage of growth building opportunities!

The same is TRUE for successful team building. A successful team must learn to be flexible and nimble enough in creating solutions to daily business challenges that they're confronted with.

Doing so, helps relieve tension with many egos present that might have conflicting theories on those solutions. In addition, when you make the wise choice of using humor and improvisation for team building purposes --

no one on the staff has to singularly take the blame if something doesn't work! One for all… and all for one, as they say!

Here is the plain truth: Due to stripped down staffs, today's employees are stressed out at having to do the work of three or four workers, (including putting in overtime!)

Not to mention having to listen to the negative media news and they go into survival mode thinking, "Gee, I'm lucky even to have a job today!"

The genius of having humor integrated into your employee's DNA is that it can be used to re-motivate people and lift their spirits, PLUS encourage them to do whatever it takes to get the job done, regardless the hurdles present.

All you have to do is examine companies like Southwest Airlines and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. They "Get it!" and have the corporate mindset of putting fun into their daily work. Think of it this way, companies that have a light spirit, laugh together… and the companies that laugh together -- grow together!

For further proof you only have to look at IBM. Yes, THAT IBM, who actually brings a lighter attitude to the company every year!

Big Blue experimented of creating a fun work environment and it paid back in dividends (literally!)

In 1996, the manager of a new IBM sales unit (consisting of 75 sales people) created an orchestra out of a bunch of musically inept sales personnel and had a 15-minute "concert" each morning in the office.

The concerts always generated a lot of laughs. The result was each salesperson hit a gong when they made their first sale of the day. They also moved a racehorse bearing their picture out of a starting cage.

According to the originator of this idea, "I needed to bring a very diverse set of people together around a common goal . . . I had to make it fun." This managers unit's sales rose 30% that year.2As you can well imagine, this approach gave the manager a company-wide reputation as a real motivator of employees.

In conclusion, the success of any company, franchise, small-to-medium sized business is directly related to the strong foundation of its employees moral and productivity.

Using humor to create that moral doesn't cost much. But when put into play every day can create the most powerful return on investment any Human Resources department could ever dream of having: a stress free, productive staff that is happy, and healthy (along with lower health care costs), and works for the betterment of their company every single business day!

1. Duncan, W.J. Perceived humor and social network patterns in a sample of task-oriented groups: A reexamination of prior research. Human Relations, 1984, 37, 895-907. Blau, P. The Dynamics of Bureaucracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955.)

2. Lancaster, H. Your career may be a laugh track away from the fast track. Wall Street Journal, March 26,

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Peter "The Reinvention Guy" Fogelis an Advertising Copywriter, Humorist, Speaker, and Author of two books: If Not Now… Then When? Stories and Strategies of People Over 40 Who Have Successfully Reinvented Themselves" and Reboot Your Career: 27 Ways to Reinvent Yourself In the Workplace (If You Still Have a Job!)

He gives keynotes speeches and hands on team building improvisational presentations to company employees (of all sizes) across North America. Sign up for his FREE Humor This! Ezine and receive the FREE Report

"Effective Workplace Humor That Can Bring Your Company a Strong ROIL! (Return On of Infectious Laughter!) (Value $25 Value)

His websites are www.fortune500comedy.com,www.reinventyourselfnow.c... or contact him at 561-749-0319 (EST)