HBR Daily Stat // Why a Few Laughs at Meetings Can Improve Team Performance

The stat:

Worker teams that experienced humorous interactions, such as a joke followed by laughter followed by another joke, during meetings tended to be rated by supervisors as better at hitting their targets, according to a study of 54 teams in two German industrial organizations by Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock of VU University Amsterdam and Joseph A. Allen of the University of Nebraska. The apparent reason is that these humorous interactions triggered important problem-solving behaviors, such as team members’ raising questions and talking about new ideas. The interactive nature of the humor is important; there was zero effect on teams’ performance from incidences of isolated humorous statements that weren’t followed by group laughter or subsequent jokes, the researchers say.

Read more in HBR.