End-of-year blunders and bloopers - what we did and what we learned!

As learning and development experts, we pride ourselves in delivering sessions that make a difference  - and make workplaces happier. But sometimes, just sometimes, our Laughology capes slip a little, and we make some rather brilliant blunders. Never to miss out on a growth mindset opportunity, we’ve shared the best of them from 2023 - as well as what we’ve learned as a result. Enjoy!

Laughologist: Stephanie Davies (CEO and Head of Happiness)

Brilliant Blunder: Our very own Head of Happiness experienced a room mix-up during a busy week. After days of keynotes and workshops at various hotels, she returned from a morning run, mistaking another guest's room for hers. Trying the door vigorously, she was met by a half-dressed gentleman. 

After apologising and embarrassingly walking away very quickly, thankful that she wouldn’t have to see the half-naked man again, it turned out he was one of the conference attendees and was to be an audience member at her keynote later. When she recounted the story in a humorous quip, he shouted, “That was me!”  

Learnings: Always photograph your room number – the menopausal brain plus tiredness can lead to mistakes, and sometimes Curly Wurlys are presented to you when you least expect them!

Laughologist: Sarah Creegan 

Brilliant Blunder: Earlier this year, Sarah facilitated two days of workshops for the SIS Swiss International School in Basel, Switzerland.

She arrived just after 8pm the night before, ready for an 8.30am start the next day. As she got off the plane, she switched on her phone and got this message:

Our rather wonderful Sarah was in the wrong Basel, in the wrong country, with only 12 hours to get to where she needed to be. 

To cut a panicky 10 minutes short, Basel is close to the point where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, and the airport has two exits – a French one and a Swiss one. Phew!

Learnings: In the end, it wasn’t a total blunder. But it has taught her to do a bit more research into the places she’s going since then.

Laughologist: Dave Keeling

Brilliant Blunder: They say, as a speaker you should be careful what you talk about. This particular thought came into sharp focus when Dave recently mentioned to an audience of 200 how much he hates stews.

Context is important here. You see, for Dave, the 80’s was one long stew. Many a school day, he would arrive home to the overpowering smell of some kind of meat in some kind of liquid emanating from a whistling pot. This particular day, he suspected that he might well be having a stew for his tea (Monday night meal at best), and so he may well have gone off into a casserole-based rant more than he should have… let’s say about 20 minutes!

Not one of the delegates backed him up, it appears Dave had gate-crashed the stew appreciation society. It was then time for lunch, and that’s right, you guessed it, it was stew.

He’s now surrounded by 200 tagine fans chowing day to their heart's content whilst he feverishly tries to ingest a salad.

But what happened next is why Dave Keeling loves his job and why every day really is a learning day. From nowhere, a man walks past him and utters a stew-related sentence he’ll never forget.

He simply said, “Don’t worry, mate, it’s just a pie without a lid.”

Brilliant!

Learnings: Dave likes pies; in fact, he bloody loves them. This stew-informed chap reframed Dave’s thinking into an idea he could get on board with. Don’t get us wrong, he’d never order one in a restaurant (waste of a go), but he went home that night and ate his pie without a lid, and he’d go as far as to say he quite enjoyed it.

Laughologist: Victoria Maitland

Brilliant Blunder: Our Victoria has a very untrustworthy dress. The top button has usually been held together by a hair band or safety pin since its inception, and as long as she keeps relatively still, it tends to behave. It was such a beloved wardrobe item that she simply couldn’t bear to see it go. 

However, fast forward to May 2023, with a post-baby lack of washing being done, and she had no chance to wear an alternative to a Laughology session. Not thinking about quite how expressive her hands become whilst facilitating, she lost the top button entirely and undid another three during the first fifteen minutes. Not only did she have to reign the body language in a bit, she also had to put on a jumper, which became very warm! 

Learnings: Think through wardrobe choices ahead of time. Sadly, the dress is now in the bin!

Laughologist: Laura Drury

Brilliant Blunder: Anyone who has moved to Southern England from Wales will have experienced the ‘joys’ of the M4. In fact, back in her college days, our Laura got stuck on it twice at Reading, for several hours, with her bestie. 

So, when she messaged said bestie to tell her she was heading to Reading for one of her Laughology sessions earlier this year, she jokingly replied, “I hope you don’t get stuck!” 

It seems friends really can seal your fate…

Having spent 45 minutes driving around Reading’s one-way system, trying to find the slip road to the hotel, which was heavily concealed by roadworks, left our lovely Laura feeling somewhat stressed. Especially as the day transpired to be a comedy of errors from a technical perspective too.

Never one to leave her Laughology toolkit behind, she practised what she preached, applied some FLIP it Thinking and got through positively (on the whole). Finding out that the CEO had also been stuck in the same place did help her feel better.

Learnings: We’re all human and kind. Everyone gets in these scrapes, and people understand. Also, if you shift your worries from how things turn out to also considering solutions, it’ll all work out in the end.

That and if she ever works in Reading again, she’ll leave at least 2 hours to get there...

Laughologist: Selina Brown

Brilliant Blunder: 

Selina has had the privilege of travelling to new cities this year, like Manchester and Wrexham, but sadly, she didn’t get to meet Ryan Reynolds. If there’s one thing we can all count on to be as unpredictable as the British weather, it’s transport delays/strikes. 

One of Selina’s least favourite times was when there were train delays in London early in the morning for a training course she was delivering in the afternoon in Manchester. Not only that but despite bringing enough snacks, she’d managed to eat them within the first hour of the journey, after she’d stood for nearly an hour at the station waiting to board the train. 

As the train crawled from stop to stop, she became increasingly irritable, even though she was only one stop away from Manchester Piccadilly. To make matters worse, her internet wasn’t working, so her messages were not being delivered. Despite imagining her inner she-hulk getting off the train and pushing it quickly to the next stop, she knew this wasn’t possible, so she had to take her own advice and focus on what was in her control - and it worked!

Learnings: 

Knowing she couldn’t control the slow train, Selina started to focus on the beautiful scenery, as well as speaking to people nearby who were in a similar position. They all had a laugh, and she was reminded that focus really is the key. 

Laughologist: Louisa Rodriguez

Brilliant Blunder: In a FLIP-it Thinking session - one of the men talked about his love of salsa dancing and that it would help him with his resilience - Louisa then ended up in a mini salsa lesson demonstration! 

Not somebody to settle for one blunder, Louisa has shared another! 

In an unconscious bias keynote just before she went on, Louisa soon realised that the room was quite hot. Choosing to ignore this predicament, she left her wool jumper on - and by the end of the one hour of running around the 200-person audience, she was a sweaty mess and looked like someone who’d done quite a rigorous session at the gym. Lovely!

Learnings: 

• Be ready for anything and always open to learning in every workshop.
• Listen to your instinct and dress for the event - if it's a big room, you may be moving a lot, so dress appropriately.

Laughologist: Kerry Leigh

Brilliant Blunder: It was a freezing cold day, and our Kerry arrived in many layers to deliver a high-energy Laughology session to a packed venue of lovely people in what turned out to be a very warm room. She was wearing a new shirt, which she had congratulated herself on as it was made from a great non-crease material that could weather the long train journey there. 

What Kerry didn’t realise was it was also a highly absorbent material that quickly darkened with her sweat as her body adjusted to the cosy indoor temperature.

But dipping into her Laughology toolkit, she decided to own it. Once she was introduced, she spread her arms wide and said: “Hi, my name’s Kerry from Laughology, and I am clearly VERY excited to see you!”

It got a laugh, and away they went. 

Learnings: Humour saves the day again!