How to laugh off failure and giggle our way to success

I don't think many of us could fail to be bewildered at this June 'summer' weather. My neighbour and I set up a relay this weekend of taking our washing in and out of the garden in response to weather which went from heavy downpour to blistering sunshine in seconds.It made me wish I had had the stuff on a pulley and could just press a button to have it rotating in and out of the house as needed. Bedraggled, bemused and wet as we were, nevertheless we laughed - well you have to don't you!

Then the most vivid memory I have from Jubilee weekend is those poor singers on the barge bellowing out 'Land of Hope and Glory', whilst dripping wet. They were hardly visible from the torrent of rain hitting them and yet as soon as the song switched to a little sea faring shanty, the audience and royals alike were knees bending, swaying and singing in time to the music.

I am a firm believer that this sort of 'British Weather induced Humour' has given us all a much needed workplace skill. Humour can and should translate to the workplace. If you can't laugh and carry on you may as well give up. I can remember someone who worked for me many years ago made an almighty IT blooper which crashed the entire system, his response was a cheeky grin as he uttered the phrase 'ooopps'. Well he could have made excuses, tempers could have flared and we could have wasted time worrying. Instead we all burst out laughing and rallied to fix the problem. This I think is why humour is so powerful, it stops us getting caught up in excuses, pity, worry and anxiety and quickly moves us to getting on and sorting things regardless.

Maybe we need to look at having a course on how to laugh off failure and giggle our way to success!!