Show Notes
Our guest on this episode of Start With a Win is Dr. Peter McGraw. He is a behavioral economist, professor, author, podcaster, and comedy student. He has recently written a new book entitled Shtick to Business which discusses how humor integrates with business, including the many lessons that leaders can learn from comedians. One of the main aspects of Peter’s research has been the theory of humor. Using an A/B test, he asked participants what they thought of certain things – did they find them funny? Boring? Offensive? Do their feelings towards those things change over time or based on their circumstances?
Ultimately, he concluded that the funny things contain benign violations—or things that are wrong and ok at the same time. For both comedians and business leaders, experimentation is key to determining what benign violations will translate well to an audience. Another aspect of humor that business leaders can utilize in the workplace is thinking in reverse to challenge the status quo. Peter has adapted this idea, developing an alternative form of brainstorming, which he calls “shtick-storming.” The concept focuses on encouraging everyone to come up with the most terrible ideas. This exercise allows leaders to actually take the pressure off of the brainstorming process, creating a freer flow of ideas which might make way for something so crazy that it actually might work.
Peter also encourages leaders to be good listeners and to champion collaboration, which will lead to innovation. Additionally, he says, leaders have to reckon with the fact they can’t make everyone happy and that sometimes they have to choose the problem they want to live with. For more insights that Peter has learned through studying the science of humor and behavioral economics, be sure to check out his book.
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What is Start With A Win?
Every day you have a choice. You can wake up and choose to give in to mediocrity and complacency, you can choose bad habits and poor choices, and you can do the bare minimum to get by and fly under the radar. Or you can choose to make today the day that sets you apart from the crowd, you can choose to start doing the right things, the things that will set you up for success. You can choose to create a life that is worth living, worth waking up to, and worth sharing with the world around you. Today You can choose to start with a win.