The ROI of LOL: Get Back in Your Box!

How many times have you heard "get out of your box?" There's even a clever nine dot make you crazy in a minute box puzzle that many of you may have experienced. Some of us stare at the puzzle administering self inflicted mental abuse. We know how to do this. But we can't remember how we do this.

Isn't the same often true in remembering our skills, talents and attributes especially as they relate to getting a return on investment of laughing out loud (ROI of LOL) with customers, colleagues & kin folks? "I can do this. I know how to do this. How am I going to do this?" Get out of your box? "HAIL NO," I playfully spell & Southernly say with two syllables. We can't even find our box much less retain what's in it! Heck, If you're like me, some days the only thing I retain is water. Inside your box are unique important gifts, talents and what you bring to the table to help sustain the human race. Seriously. No small thing.

What's the big deal about the box and laughter? Connection. Not about connecting the dots, but about the connection within yourself and with others. If you were doing my version, the nine dot exercise in my "Want More Money? Get More Funny," workshop, I'd ask you to connect "lightbulbs." I'd ask you to specifically identify 9 areas you'd like to lighten up. Personal or professional, research indicates we really can't and don't separate the two nor do we leave our baggage at the office front door. This lightbulb exercise sheds light on what boils down to common emotions that can make you boil with overwhelm, frustration, miscommunication or more. The emotions are endless and not unique. But your connection to a funny solution can be unique and create a return on investment by laughing out loud.

A beautiful example is a story of a flight attendant who answered the call button of an aggravated passenger hotly complaining that his potato was bad. The attendant snatched the potato from his plate and began to smack it repeatedly while scolding "Bad potato, bad potato!" She whisked away the bad potato and returned with a good potato and a good laugh for both the passenger and her.

Shock, surprise and the unexpected are corner stones to creating laughter. Maybe one of the flight attendants labeled light bulbs would be "aggravated people on airplanes." Clearly her box contained attributes such as quick wit, confidence and being funny.

The bottom line of the ROI of LOL are beautifully summed up in the words of a Barbara Streisand song, "It's the laughter we will remember." The way we were may be a great clue to the way we are... what is unique to us inside our box. Get back in your box. Create laughter to lighten-up your nine issues and "it's the laughter we will remember."

For more fun stories and information about humor, go to JuneCline.com. June believes there is a real and serious return on investment of laughing out loud (The ROI of LOL) with customers, colleagues and kin folk to build connection, communications and profit.

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.