 Thank you. Thank you all. Let's see if this works. Yes delightful to be back My first time with this tribe which at the time seemed like a tribe. I don't know if I want to belong to was in Berlin what six years ago or so and My deepest gratitude to all of you and all of those members of the tribe not here because a plan improvisation has genuinely Changed my life and not just my professional life We are going to see over the coming 15 minutes or so a taste of how What I and my colleagues have learned from the applied improvisation network has fed into our other Explorations and how we're now trying to use in particular humor as A way to harness the power of humanity and to try to accomplish things that are not easy to accomplish So a little bit of background you heard too many words in short. I'm a math geek I'm a scientist who became a humanitarian worker Unfortunately for the planet We have a lot of work things are happening too much is changing and There's situations where knowledge can become action, but it doesn't always happen any advice on that ready to go This may work So far Michael has been genius in making everything work No, let's go for the power. Thank you Exposing the nature of collaboration is something that often we are told that is bad Everything is supposed to work like a mechanism and as a presenter I am told you shouldn't be talking to the Expert who pushes buttons that I would never know how to push because I mess up. That is one of the things Foundational to what I've learned about the world and professional work with applied improvisation. This is how work happens. Thank you Michael How often do we say thank you to the person who helps us do what we do? So this is my team We're a global team based in the Netherlands, but we serve a hundred and ninety one countries we help anticipate and address Unitarian consequences of things that can go wrong with climate-related things from tomorrow hurricane to long-term sea level rise There is our charming photos there are other photos that are difficult to coexist with It may look like a normal day And in a way it is if you recognize that a new normal is very similar to what we used to call bad Now I warn you I celebrate your laughter But this is not a session where I try to make you laugh This is not a stand-up comedy routine based of jokes jokes are statements that are meant to provoke laughter if it happens Please laugh, but this is not about that. It's about how humor can help us notice what we don't often notice as a math geek, let me tell you how this Cartoon beautifully illustrates what in my opinion is the The foundational similarity between humor and humanitarian work both are about the clash between what is and what could be so in this graph It shows that change cannot happen gradually until it happens abruptly as A math geek I can anticipate H H represents how horrible can things get Once they start changing fast Now D stands for denial do we dare recognize That we fail to notice the obvious Time is coming. We can estimate how much time between now and some abrupt change coming And there's all sorts of other things are we willing to take the leap into action to help those who may be in trouble Most important question what on earth were those people thinking about why are we socially constructing risk? That causal mechanism behind everything that looks stupid But is real is what we need to confront as well as dealing with the imminent of needs now This is the original caption by Bob Landon We've got to talk Well, then guess what? Conversation is an art form that has been lost to contemporary modes of interaction the dominant of Interaction is Unidirectional you shut up and listen and there wasn't talking or I'm some presenter I'm talking and when we get people together Except for applying provisers and a handful of others. We don't know exactly how to go about we've got to talk So everyone stand up find a partner silently Stand back to back when your partner if you can in silence, please It's gonna be trouble. I promise if you don't have a partner for me for material Bump your way into shoulder to shoulder. Okay Thank you very important. No talking to your partner Because otherwise you can do things that are not to be done like agree on what to do in this game You cannot agree on what to do. Are you familiar with the game of rock paper scissors? Can you show me a rock? It's just a fist, but it represents something else show me your scissors Show me your paper good in the normal game of rock paper scissors The rock is trying to demolish the scissors is trying to cut the paper. It's a competitive game Where my only way of winning is to destroy you We're going to play a different version of the game. It's a collaborative version of the game We're not talking when I say ready set go You both turn around as agilely as you can and do one of those three gestures if you match You shout yes Otherwise you stay silent and you go back to back to back for the second rock Try to match your partner. What will he or she do ready set go I'm going to say one word is a word that you associate with both humor and the red cross No strategizing. What do you think of that can be thought about that is involving humor and the red cross It has to be only one word What are you going to say ready set go? To me When we do things like this, what do you think of when you think of humor alone? These are some of the words that often come up laughter jokes fun Etc. How many of these words do you obviously associate with humanitarian work on the red cross? It doesn't work smart. Thank you very much You haven't seen all of my work But in any case, this is what we associate with humor and seems completely Overlapping with the nature of our work. Did anybody think of the word test? Someone did when I played this game with Bob Mancoff the creator of that cartoon We both went like that. I said something and he looked at me in the eye and he said death Just what think of that cartoon of the water In order to create that cartoon, which is the first one he thought of when I told him I'm working about risk I'd like to explore humor. Thank you drew by the way. Where are you? Thank you drew for the bridge and I'll talk about you later as well He draws on the possibility of death In order to create human make jokes about that as a human Italian I But There are things that humor can do outside of my right cross life I Was consulting for a team of the workman group that was going to bring together 150 people from ministries of finance ministry of planning ministry of infrastructure Entities from national governments have received billions of dollars to build dams and ports and so on the conversation was to be about government accountability Could be interpreted as code for corruption and Citizen engagement, which could be assumed to be let those losers lose How do you bring someone who is receiving your money? To have a conversation about things like corruption and so on most natural reaction on the part of a minister from my home country would be There is no corruption in my country. It wasn't me and who are you to bring that topic? Yeah So to have a conversation you to create something different what we propose with Bob Myself was to create a humor enabled conversation We curated some cartoons were printed this large Against the walls and people were invited to walk around Have a conversation if something's right there Bites there was a lot of laughter in the room because they recognize their reality That was being made fun And then they started a conversation and they annotated the cartoons and a lot of things emerged and then it was easier to have that conversation And you can see there's from deep reflection to recognition of that as a scientist communicating forecasts About tomorrow's extreme rainfall or seasonal drought or sea level rise to people who could make decisions This is how it feels It's like we are honking honking again about what should be listened to and isn't guess what if I keep honking again the same way It won't work I am positive that the emergence of humor enables Breakthroughs in understanding in dialogue in recognition of realities their blood improvisation tribe Is aware of that but as far as I can tell with a few exceptions It's not thinking of humor as a central tool to accomplish certain serious things Let me get there shortly First of all, we don't know what thinking what people are thinking when they come to some event and if you're a disaster manager chances are they're not thinking about what you think This is another cartoon by Bob Manco I see risk as oh it can go wrong Oh the floodplain you may get flooded a farmer in Zambia is thinking. Oh, yeah, the floodplain. It's fertile soil That's where my crops will grow faster and richer How can I anticipate what people are thinking about how can I converse about our differences? This my friends is a photo of one of the last 16 consecutive conferences I have attended of the UN framework convention on climate change You and climate conference two weeks from one Monday to we can the other Friday 10,000 people from 200 countries trying to Fix one of the most complex problems we're confronted Two weeks of that who would like to go? How much humor do you think there is in that room? If you think of the occasional conference as having death by PowerPoint in this context There are real Consequences to the idea of boredom Every brain that is checking email or not engaged is not finding the solution that we need You're laughing but that's exactly how it feels That's exactly how I feel when I go places to try to understand the science the policy the Governance the funding the absence of funding the everything that isn't there. I'm like This is not it There's there's a storm going on. There's a hell room I'm going to tell you a story that happened Three or four years ago I have my laptop connected internet and like Michael who was nearby and he just push some buttons I have to go to the IT desk And I went to the IT desk and two nice young men were pushing buttons to fix my computer One of them looks at their own computer says something in a language. I don't understand and they both have a nice I have no idea what was going on. I have nothing else to do. So I said would you mind sharing what is? humorous And one of them said sure. Yeah a powerpoint just started in room 17 I have no idea how they know that or why that is funny in Noticing my facial expression of confusion He elaborated well, we can see a peak in internet Many of you burst into laughter some of you took a while to understand it one face I'm seeing is still in a complete state of shock. I Have continued to have that state of shock This was the first moment. I can trace where humor was a diagnostic tool. Wait a second Why is that funny if it is appalling? We are designing events that seem to be designed Intentionally to make people tune out of the time when we bring them together Of course the word needs more applied improvisation and other forms of interaction But this to me if this is funny then humor is more complicated than we think These are two of the works of art that I think of when I think of my current work We have been creating Creations that ended up becoming monsters in part because of our lack of caring whether it's the internal combustion engine or the UN climate conference systems And it really feels like screaming When I go work with my colleague Kara Kara, can you stand up and wave Kara is a real recross person I Think I come up with ideas Kara has to help set up systems that make decisions Where to spend the money Which is also the mirror images were not to spend the money two places need money. You only can afford one So please talk to her. She needs your help So this is how our work feels in the humanitarian sector Talking about humor. I am envisioning as Humor can be useful if certain things are in place or things happen. I don't understand very well Let's try what I do not want is what is often told to people who are about to start a power point Which is start with a joke Yes This is from the color of a book by Ross Chast I Hate the guts of those who bring a Here's something funny. Let's all do something I once invited a colleague from the side of the recross that deals with conflict with our company really severely Dumb it into the soul work and I said Marsha if you'd like to come There's a workshop about humor in my turn work and she replied in email all caps No, I don't want to be asked to quack like a duck Who made her do that? Someone thought let's inject humor in a workshop for humanitarians dealing with our conflict Let's ask them to quack like a duck. I don't want that But it's hard to tell which is the line that shall not be crossed These are some of the examples of what we have been doing In my team the recross recrossing climate center always with partners. This is in the Eastern Namibia on the Zambezi river floodplain farmers We're learning about flood predictions flood forecasts and we have discussed what can you do about it You can take your children to high ground You can do certain things that protect your lab ones and your assets and then we play the game Where they actually have to do it if these were about a fire risk You have to go and run to the fire extinguisher. Guess what? That's when you notice that you don't know where the fire extinguisher is Yeah Now if you look at the body language, they're really going for it, but look at their faces. They're having a blast Neuroscience shows that when humor happens Memories that are formed Stay longer and deeper more impression. They're easier to access That matters when the next blood forecast comes You will also please be formally Those farmers who showed up who made the new neighbors After this they see each other and they smile and they remit reminisce And they're more likely to Relate to the subject marion a different way the way that creates trust and I love you Change happens at the speed of the master How can we help create trust? You need to be the opposite of trust the dominating modality of interaction That's yours truly at the white house eight years ago I was invited to give my five minute presentation in a sequence of a full day essentially Instead of what have been done before me. Hello, my name is so-and-so Organization this and that and there was this problem until I showed up with my organization and we did this and that And now people are happy because you give me your money Um What I did was I was the second presenter of her lunch Don't do don't do it, but I said hello My name is Pablo from the Red Cross and this is not a frisbee. It's a hurricane everyone. Please stand up You don't have to but I'm like, what yeah, please stand up. It's a hurricane Some people who are listening to that Kind of reluctantly then everyone did and then I threw some dice and I threw the frisbee and it hit people in the chest It was a big confusion and then they understood the rule that the dice were the forecast double one throw the hurricane over here That was six throw it over there And it was an eight and someone said it's an eight it's going over there All that sector sat down as I was throwing the frisbee which flew above their heads hits the wall of the Room in the white house and they were like, yeah, thank you And when the happiness subsided I said congratulations, and I think now think hurricane country We can help you turn science into humanitarian decisions. If you want, let's talk. Thank you The smiling helps people remember and want to and then we did stuff with support From those who could support and want to support but are bored from all these boring pitches Humor can help turn something that is strange Into something that becomes familiar Or turn something that you think is familiar like the power point situation into something strange Humor can reframe and we need a lot of reframing to recognize and do certain things This is the just what two hours from here new york metropolitan museum of art The oceania wing is spectacularly beautiful if you haven't seen it the curator maya allowed us to Enter the premises a couple hours before it open to the public And we had some colleagues from the recross humanitarian workers Some atmospheric scientists like andrew Dancers Who have created like a choreography of an early warning dance and not much of a dance person So he sneaked out and took the photo you may recognize someone from the applied improvisation team here So There So So her is a professor or was at the time at least a professional flash mob developer We had this bunch of people from very weird tribes We had a conversation this magnificent place I used a lot of the tricks I learned here at the aind conference to get people bonding relating to the embrace Or what could we what can we do about the world and its problems an idea came up A flash mob to address foreseeable risks. Whether it's a flat or a hit one. So we recruited The flash mob developer to come to the conference conference in marrakesh in morocco Where the highest recorded temperature a few years before have been 49.9 celsius 152 degrees far And so what we did they they came up working with locals A a a dancey thing that was co-developed with the moroccan regressions youth And in the conference I was giving a serious presentation And music starts sounding Like sounds like candles and it's better with the dance And then guess what the 300 people have been Somewhat not to entertain they stood up and started dancing And then the idea was liked by someone from india who said can we do it in india without zohar We had our own team developed with the indian more bollywood-esque Heatwave flash mob at the marketplace where it was done There was the head of security of the new of the deli international airport who said can you please do it with Our people And so it happened both for the public and for the workers who load your luggage on the tarmac You know how hard it gets I have no doubt that this flash mob saved lives Because now they know that they have to stay hydrated. They have to see each other They have to request a revision of their working conditions when it gets 125 degrees and so Last example for now I was one of two training nasa on how to communicate science satellite images etc to to help make decisions on disaster preparedness And andrew had this brilliant idea. He saw that the the first event was in like a local pub That and it had the aesthetics of a standard comedy club Right, so what we did was and what was going to happen here is team a from nasa comes and talks about their satellite tool Team b comes and talks about their modeling there and then everyone is somewhat bored and then nothing happens Their problem is that they have all these tools that no one is using to save lives I kind of know why some of them are too complex Some of them are not exactly useful And most of them need a process of Working with others to become embedded in systems So what we did was each team has five minutes to present their Tool their program etc Everyone else in their tables. They had to come up with two headlines Of an imaginary future where something happens involving a tool could be something good That was done because of that could be something bad that happened that could have avoided because of this tool Or could have been a Misinterpretation of the use or an intentional bad user. Guess what every large onto the bad news The headlines were hilarious And it was an easy way to communicate to their colleagues. You're missing the big picture You're not understanding how things really work. You're not noticing that someone is not going to get it To say that to your professional colleague can be difficult, but if humor is in the room It becomes much more possible So humor was not a joke. It was the creation of an atmosphere that enabled humor to emerge And laughter is the shortest distance between people and ideas, especially when things can be not right That's a sentence from the official 10 talk guidelines essentially saying when the audience laughs with you They like you they trust more of what you have to say and they take it more seriously If you want there's a dead talk I gave a couple months ago on this humor and humanitarian work So I'm going to skip this because you took too long when I gave you time punishment very unfair, but Let's do this 30 seconds of silence Or less can you think of instances in your recent or long ago life? When something was happening then humor happened Someone said something like someone fell over a banana peel. I don't know and as a result there was a change in the dynamics Think of it. Sorry. It helps me move to the next You have 15 seconds or less in silence. Either you thought of something or you didn't I'm going to catch you So these are the words that most people think of when thinking of humor But I've been spending some time with people who are professional makers of humor And I ask them what do you think of when you think of humor? And here are some of their words Conflict tension risk ambiguity confusion questioning danger contradiction, of course death ambiguity These are exactly the reasons why we humanitarians have too much work and therefore it's like oh We can use humor to show the causes and consequences of things like too much tension too much Danger too much contradiction contradiction between a federal law and state law can mean trouble You know I have the audio but for the benefit of speed because I'm sure Time is flying. Yes I often get told oh, but you cannot use humor because our work is too serious and it turns out that Mahatma Gandhi was a very intelligent tactical and strategic user of humor And so was Martin Luther King his student In an audio that I have but has his very charming You call it what bro Southern accent He says you've got to have the ability to engage in creative laughter In order to live amid difficulties and tension if you can't laugh your life, you're a very miserable human being A great deal of truth over comes through laughter Some people have developed the challenge to get this truth over to many people by laughing the truth Into them and out of them Isn't that awesome? How how can you elicit Tough realities maybe I think humor is most important he says in getting a truth getting people to understand and often to rise above the despair Which can surround them now. He was surrounded by despair He was being jailed for something as normal saying hey my pigmentation shouldn't determine whether or not I can drink water and thirst No one can tell me That his work was not serious But humor really did help and I can share Phenomenal anecdotes from him and Gandhi and many others, but I want to point to one thing here We think of people as if they were born funny But it's developing the talent to get this truth one example He was on a car with some of his peers on a way to a place to stage a protest that was most likely going to get them today He said We're late, but let's stop get a sandwich because we do not like the idea of spending the 19th reason well hungry He the wording was more humorous than what I just said But he was using humor to speak about a difficult truth If we're doing this we have to accept a possible consequence that is not over like When I last stood on a stage With the aion conference. I think it was two years ago in montreal I showed this of the places where I had already done aion things So these are places where I run activities Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Southern Africa, Mali, Ghana Delhi, Fiji, Guatemala Since then I have some more work so Kathmandu, Singapore, Borneo, Vanuatu You name it Mali Mopti Unfortunately for the world we have too much work Please connect to Kara. Can you rise again Kara and show who you are? She can help she is here not working in Geneva for the Red Cross So Four days or something that she could be doing things like allocating money for people who are hungry She's here. She better get something good out of this Okay And you can help us Imagine how we can bring because you're talking of this conference as beyond borders But with a few exceptions some I recognize and some not there's a vast majority of european north america here And the world that needs you is predominantly elsewhere So if this is the word conference, let's bring the world to the aion It doesn't not doesn't have to be that you go to Kathmandu after the earthquake But it can be that you help others That was my tough one From the scholarships to our dear colleague Eddie Jajamba from Kambala was going to come If only he could find a way to pay for his plane ticket all other expenses paid by you and he couldn't get that So I really lamented because he's so awesome. I know you will meet him one day. He has to come to one's future But thanks for trying we need to try Moving on Thank you Melina Uh I went through her sustainable stand-up comedy training in singapore And one thing really liked about her the mindset she put together stand-up comedy is assumed to be making fun of Those from another political flavor from another ethnic group from another something or other or making fun of some I'm so told that this guy doesn't fit in economy class. I don't like flight But I have to And the people made and it's sad because they're laughing about my suffering which is a lot of stand-up comedy Yeah What she says is love yourself. Love your neighbors Find the system How can we shed light on things about what is around us that shouldn't be that way? And you assume or to say well some things they are should be there. Let's check Now I'm going to get geeky Some of you attended the data session today. Thanks for trying to bring analytical river To this tribe. We need more of that. Please bear with me. I promise you it's good Let me make sure I don't trespass on the timing Oh, we're so far So I worked with teams at amit media lab. I was walking around There was a big screen on the fourth floor, which I couldn't see what it was showing as I get closer It shows the place where I am including me and jano. Just greetings from jano for those of you who know her and then My face changed into an emoticon And as I saw that I frowned and the emoticon frowned Which made me laugh and the emoticon laughed Turns out this team the effective computing team has developed a tool that can read your facial expression I just go up surprise. Let's curl up Humor et cetera and then you can tell are you like that whatever are you different shades of happy or joy Or are you sad angry asleep? Very calculable if you think of the things computers can do if it sees you it can notice certain things I was going to have to give a talk about climate problems including geoengineering. Has anyone heard about geoengineering? Okay, I have bad news for you. The climate is changing so fast That there is the proposal to intentionally modify the global climate By blocking sunlight with software partners Okay, this is a reality now. I'm going to explain what's going on here I'll I'll repeat it But yes, thanks for your curiosity. So Five days of global red cross youth convening in northern Italy Last day after lunch. I get given one hour Guess what? The girl from Uruguay and the kid from Tajikistan are more interested in each other than they're listening to the old dude talking about So how can I try to get them to listen because this should matter to them? They're young humanitarians who will experience a complicated future This is an actual shot from my session. This is what I knew was going to be the default Yeah, some are completely destructive. Some are looking elsewhere And you don't see the ones that are asleep. I didn't there. I was over here by the way None of them is looking at me But what I needed was for them to be looking at me and noticing what I was about to say So with their consent And with the MIT offshore the tera machine learning analysis official expressions. We talked about I'm going to get to you now Solar radiation management. Can we manage how much sunlight comes to us? Can we block some? There's something I wanted to tell them and I knew it was going to be hard. So I said, how can I can I try to use humor? And I reach out to Drew Tarvin who is a professional humor that works who explains to people how humor can help them Whether your IDM or FBI, he can help you So he kindly offered to help me without charging me what he charges those are And he said I predict Sorry, he suggested that I use Mary Poppins. I'll explain why very shortly But I said to dear drew dear drew. Thanks for your service, but I think it's not good because a Global event many people from Tajikistan may not know who Mary Poppins was youth. This was before the remake And third and most importantly, I don't like great poppins And he said well, you do as you want, but I predict that if you use Mary Poppins people will get it People will be engaged people will get the point. You're trying to come What better way to lure a geek into doing that than to make a prediction that is testable I formulated it. I thought this is I got the gear. I got the consent and all that stuff and This was the first that I know geoengineering session That was designed with humor in mind and it was tested The machine reads facials And recognizes that a face or not and if it's a face it can measure lots of things including are you engaged or not? Are you with it or not? That's the red light Not much engagement going on there Surprised do eyebrows go up? And joy is there, you know, all those metrics of the lips and so on that is laughing and so on So this is what I'm going to see I'm going to show you the moment that matters This is where the kids were when Pablo was saying there are people who are Posing and it is very obviously true. But it's on science that we can technologically manipulate the global climate By messing with the atmosphere intentionally They engage a little bit and as I continue speaking I began to lose everything One way is to suck current from the atmosphere just like trees do but with machines And some of them have been surprised by these machines that suck the other way is to intentionally block sunlight Imagine a giant umbrella between us and the sun Now I got their attention. Here's Drew's magic at work. Yeah They're saying what the hell are you talking about? They're engaged and they're surprised or confused It's like having a giant Mary Poppins in the sky Because what I have explained was to block sunlight with So instead of one giant, I'm sorry, I'm messing up in time When I said giant umbrella in the sky they're surprised or they say Mary Poppins in the sky surprise goes down Joy goes off the ship They're having a blast Yeah engagement goes up blue, which is joy. I'm gonna say well instead of one giant umbrella imagine many many many tiny tiny umbrellas That happened to be made a small of sulfur which becomes sulfuric acid droplets That block off some of the sunlight cooling down the planet And this is doable It's affordable. It's now being funded and it can get done in your lifetime and in your name When I said that the engagement stayed high, but the joy went down So I had them they were like holy smokes But look at how the joy Came back because there was an atmosphere of engagement and Sarah and one of the kids from former Yugoslavia made the remarks that I couldn't understand And he said it again and I still couldn't understand so you see engagement going down and then we got it Oh, sorry, I wasn't showing you the photos. So that's when he was uh, when I was saying our geoengineering That's when I said Imagine giant umbrella That's Mary Poppins Yeah Kid from Guatemala listening to delivery regulation of the global climate Now the kid who was saying something he was saying about the sulfuric acid droplets It's like having nano umbrellas He made a joke That's the most obvious crystallization of understanding. Yeah So I am now over convinced That yes, you work and help me accomplish the serious things I have to accomplish That we have data to back it up and it's a good idea to work with drew melina Bob Johar and all these other No That has not changed, but it's okay. I'm still willing to work with people. I don't Uh, so we need a survey Uh, in short, was there too much humor or too little humor? And most people said there was exactly the right amount of humor And then we asked was there more than usual less than usual about as much as you know, they said much more than usual The logical conclusion is that more humor than usual is exactly the right amount of humor Half geeks of the world unite So fun is fun Fun can help us get serious work done And this is I think my last slide so I should be on time. I am a time checker Why does humor work? Let's first think about why the usual things don't work. Why were those people so bored in that conference photo? Because we're giving answers and no one has that question humor usually works A pitch like a plan improvisation by creating an instance that is puzzling or confusing Huh What giant umbrella in the sky? You need to create an anomaly. You need to create all the words in that word cloud tension confusion puzzlement incongruity ambiguity And then some input is provided either by use for a job or preferably by a dynamic that you enable to emerge from the group That leads them to ha ha ha to experience A release of that confusion is something that works that is entertaining that is humorous and if it is well designed Aha, I get it. I have to stop honking again Yeah, the cliff of the waterfall is getting too close We've got to talk whatever the thing may be. We need to get to that. So my invitation to you Is how can we work together? We are full of problems. You're full of activities mindsets exercises that create interaction that elicit humor But as far as I know we could do more to craft the use of humor for having difficult conversations. Most of your work It's telling me I have to stop it 30 seconds perfect Most of your work is for clients who already have you to do trainings, etc Not much of your work is about having difficult conversations And a lot of the humanitarian work we confront needs to address difficult conversations. You can help us. We can help you Thank you so much