GELOTOLOGY? 

It's the study of laughter.

So the Diploma in Applied Gelotology sees laughter put to work - in a seriously enjoyable learning concept available in 2012 and beyond to benefit many people in perhaps a couple of suitable companies.

It's a sort of informal, in-company sandwich course for any mix and number of people - running roughly once a month for 6-8 months or more.

In the late mornings, your company gets a thoughtful Thinking Time workshop/tutorial for up to 100 people on such unsung skill areas as Likeability, Curiosity, Consiliency, Audiency, Interrogancy, Evaluancy and Advocacy. In the full afternoons, there's a Wiser Writer clinic on Business Literacy for 1-20 people to have coaching or counselling on communications skills in general.

It's awarded not to individuals but to a company as an unusual thank-you and motivator for many of your staff - and local guests you might to invite in from outside.  Without anyone leaving the premises. Though (thankfully) away from from desk and screen from time to time.

And as you'll see, one endorphin-releasing spin-off is to help provide basic education for some children in need.

The Diploma is fun with its sleeves rolled up.  Though there'll be plenty of laughs and imagination-tickling, the Diploma is a way to develop and address understanding of a wide range of issues for people in most jobs.

It also gives everyone taking part a bit of welcome breathing space and thinking time, away from the pressures of their desk, screen, or phone.

The DipAppGelotol might have been the Dip.Brapp.Gelotol! Certainly it may have attractions for a biggish Medical Department open to ideas. But the Diploma is big in potential for further education and understanding throughout a company. (So it'll need a bit of enthusiastic co-ordination and championing.)

The Diploma been created by Hugh Gibbons of Just1, applying his many years as business writer and educator, running over a hundred of his business psychology meetings, lecturing for the MSc in Pharmaceutical Medicine, providing workshops for a wide range of organisations, and giving dozens of public talks.

The Diploma is a sort of sandwich course with a difference - in content, setting, style, benefits, uplift and newsworthiness.

It's not demanding on time. There are no exams, projects, or theses involved. Though you decide on the number of tutorials it includes, anyone can attend one or all as suits them - and can print their own Diploma at any time. They can also have a say in the syllabus!

And all your students' fees are paid by the company.

There's an all-in fee according to the number and nature of the Diploma sessions you order. The only additional outlay would be for Hugh's travel and any necessary accommodation, at cost. Given that many people and departments may benefit, this fee will probably come of out a central budget.

All fees go direct to a charity supporting a highly-respected UK charity that provides real-life vocational education for disadvantaged children in South India. So if you can't get your head round organising for that, then don't read on.

The Diploma would be high on QADYs: Quality Adjusted Development Years.  Six useful Thinking Time sessions attended by, say, 50 people would provide you with about 450 people-hours of unique learning. The accompanying six Wiser Writer afternoons attended by perhaps 10 people on average would give another 150 people-hours of practical counselling and coaching.

And what sort of company might be suitable to stage the Diploma for its staff and guests?

Well, for starters, one with senior management open to ideas. Well-organised. Largish - to get the benefit of big audiences. Unstuffy.  With a biggish meeting room. Having an eye on the future.  And not too far from Bracknell in the Thames Valley, where Hugh is based.

Yes?  Ish? 

Then contact hughgibbons@just1.org.uk

A Crash Course in Gelotology

As a pilot course
to animate, educate or resuscitate company conferences, symposia and similar large gatherings, Hugh Gibbons also has a
slide-filled stand-up tutorial available based on his highly popular Flying-Crooked talks.

The session uses a big variety of examples
to provide serious lessons, understanding and appreciation of the human side
of organisations today.

The material is drawn from the human side
of the world of flying.
So it ranges across such topics as the Flighty Women of White Waltham; the one-armed, one-eyed pilot who ferried 1400 planes; Hugh's own experience in training as a glider and private pilot; surviving falls without a parachute; emotional intelligence at airports; the Extremely Derogatory Order of the Inextractable Digit; and thr Wright Brothers Wrong Predictions...

The session is suitable for international audiences -
though some of the verbals may be vulnerable to the time delay of simultaneous
translation (aka joke lag...)
 

 
"...with his fascinating paper on
Coincidence and Applied Gelotology."
 

On the same day as each Unsung Skills tutorial, you get a good 3-hour morning or afternoon session of coaching and counselling on writing on screen, page and flipchart. Thinking and speaking skills are included, of course.

You’ll just need to work out who’s going to be there each month, and arrange a suitable space (eg a small room - though 1-to-1 quiet coaching can be at someone's desk or corner of an office).

The sessions are flexible to suit your needs.  You can use the time for individual coaching, or tutorials for department teams, or general work for mixed groups of up to 20. 

All attenders can work through a light-hearted on-line pre-course slideshow warm-up - at their own pace. 

Each session is packed with exercises, tips and techniques, examples, advice, and practice.

The material used can be your students' own writing at work, and other company material. 

If you want, sessions can focus on such topics as Writing for Proposals, Briefings, Reports, Questionnaires, and Presentations