Remotely Humorous: Build Joyful and Resilient Virtual Teams with Humor

Offered By: HumorX via edX

Course Description

Overview

Brace yourself — you are about to embark on an online learning experience unlike any other.

Imagine your favorite comedy show and the world’s best online educational content had a baby. Then imagine that baby transformed your team to be more joyful, humorous, creative, resilient, and effective, all while working remotely.

You are about to enroll in that baby.

Naomi Bagdonas and Connor Diemand-Yauman are leading experts in organizational leadership and culture. They've coached celebrities and fortune 500 executives, taught at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, and founded and led multiple organizations. They’ve teamed up with comedic minds from The Onion, Funny Or Die, and Comedy Central to create a fun, interactive learning experience to empower you to show up more authentically, effectively, and joyfully at work and life.

You might be wondering: “Should I really be prioritizing a course about humor? Also, was it just me, or did that baby metaphor kind of fall apart at the end?”

To answer your first question: humor is what makes all the other stuff your team has to do tolerable. In this brave new world of work, when we rarely see our team members in person — or from the pajama bottoms down — it's harder than ever to foster connection, joy, and well-being in our remote teams. All the while, behavioral science suggests that creating a company culture of humor and levity is the quickest path to nurturing these things.

To answer your second question: Yes. Just roll with it.

This program is designed for individuals who want to be more energized, joyful, and effective at work and for remote teams that want to feel more connected, creative, and resilient through the most challenging times. It’s also for anyone who wants fewer one-hour meetings that feel like three-hour meetings with only ten minutes of useful work.

You shouldn’t have to choose between catching up on your favorite comedy show and learning techniques for being happier and better at your job. Now you can kill two birds (the Boredom Hawk and the Inefficiency Vulture, to be specific) with one online learning experience.

We’re excited to be on this journey with you.

Syllabus

Courses under this program:
Course 1: Conquering Humor Fundamentals

Unlock your sense of humor with professional comedy techniques, and learn to use humor as a superpower for building bonds, creativity, and mental health on virtual teams.

Course 2: Priming Your Remote Team for Humor

Explore the five enablers of humor in virtual teams and apply team building techniques to create the conditions for levity and joy to emerge and thrive.

Course 3: Making Remote Humor Stick

Learn how to use the three drivers of levity — legends, rituals and offers — to build an enduring culture of joy, connection, and effectiveness.

Courses

0 reviews
2 weeks, 1-2 hours a week, 1-2 hours a week
View details

In this course, you’ll build the foundations of humor at work. You’ll explore the neuroscience of laughter and why it’s a superpower that increases bonds, creativity, and resilience on virtual teams. You’ll come to understand your unique humor style, including what makes you laugh, how you make others laugh, and how to activate your sense of humor with colleagues. Finally, you’ll mine seemingly mundane moments with your team for humor, apply simple comedic techniques from the pros, and shift your mindset towards being on the precipice of a smile.

This is Course 1 of 3 in the Remotely Humorous Program taught by Naomi Bagdonas and Connor Diemand-Yauman are leading experts who have taught at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. They’ve teamed up with comedic minds from The Onion, Funny Or Die, and many more impressive comedy mainstays to create a fun, interactive learning experience, focused on cultivating humor and levity in virtual teams and empowering you to show up at work more authentically, effectively, and joyfully.
0 reviews
2 weeks, 1-2 hours a week, 1-2 hours a week
View details

In this course, you’ll explore the five enablers of humor in remote teams: safety, connectedness, agency, growth, and purpose. You’ll learn the significance of each enabler, how they create the conditions for joy to flourish, and how to amplify them. Next, you’ll take a diagnostic designed to help you understand which enablers your team members most naturally channel, and where you have the greatest opportunity to grow. Finally, you’ll take on team building activities to strengthen these enablers within your organization.

This is Course 2 of 3 in the Remotely Humorous Program taught by Naomi Bagdonas and Connor Diemand-Yauman are leading experts who have taught at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. They’ve teamed up with comedic minds from The Onion, Funny Or Die, and many more impressive comedy mainstays to create a fun, interactive learning experience, focused on cultivating humor and levity in virtual teams and empowering you to show up at work more authentically, effectively, and joyfully.
0 reviews
2 weeks, 1-2 hours a week, 1-2 hours a week
View details

Hear that? It's the sound of rubber meeting road.

If the first course of this program was about getting your team in the Humor-Mobile, and the second course was about putting fuel in the tank, this course is about putting your foot on the gas.

So buckle up and turn off the child-lock. It's time to dive headfirst into strategies for activating and institutionalizing a culture of levity.

First, you’ll review behavioral research (the fun kind) illuminating the benefits of humor on teams, and why it’s worth weaving into the fabric of your organization and company culture. Next, you’ll learn about the three drivers of a culture of levity - legends, rituals, and offers - and how each can be used to take the levity, humor, and joy on your remote team to new heights. Finally, you’ll evaluate the legends, rituals, and offers of your organization today, and explore how they can be changed or augmented with more levity.

This is Course 3 of 3 in the Remotely Humorous Program taught by Naomi Bagdonas and Connor Diemand-Yauman, leading experts in workforce culture who have taught at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. They’ve teamed up with comedic minds from The Onion, Funny Or Die, and Comedy Central to create a fun, interactive learning experience that will empower you to show up at work more authentically, effectively, and joyfully.

Taught by

Connor Diemand-Yauman and Naomi Bagdonas