The Levity Works
Warmth, connection and a little more humanity at work
A practical workshop for teams who want a happier, better connected and more resilient working culture, without the forced fun or the cringe team building
Why Work with Alfie Noakes
Alfie Noakes founded We Are Funny Project after more than 25 years across BBC journalism, television production and live comedy.
As a BBC journalist and documentary director, he spent over a decade learning how rooms work: how attention is held, how trust is built quickly and how the opening moments of any exchange shape everything that follows.
Across 1,800 live comedy shows, he had a front-row seat to something most people never get to observe at scale: what actually creates ease between a performer and a room full of strangers.
Not jokes alone. The timing. The small human moments that lower defences and make people feel genuinely at home.
He watched levity do things that seriousness simply cannot: dissolve tension, build trust faster, make people more willing to contribute, take risks and connect openly.
He also watched what happened when those qualities were absent. Rooms that stayed guarded. Teams that never quite gelled. Audiences that were present but never quite with you.
That understanding of what levity actually does, and how to use it intelligently rather than awkwardly, is the foundation of this workshop.
Why this approach makes sense
"The average four-year-old laughs around 300 times a day. It takes the average 40-year-old two and a half months to laugh that many times. Most professionals fall off 'the humour cliff' around the point they start taking work seriously. The research suggests that is exactly the wrong trade-off."
"Shared humour and laughter in real meetings predicted both immediate and later team performance. The effect was measurable and consistent."
"A meta-analysis of 49 studies involving more than 8,500 participants found that positive humour enhances individual resilience, group cohesion and overall performance. Leaders who use humour effectively are seen as more motivating and approachable."
What your team will learn
Practical skills with immediate value
Where levity can be applied usefully
Learn where genuine opportunities exist for playfulness and lightness in everyday work, and how to use them without making things awkward or forced.
How to communicate with humanity
Develop practical ways to make written and spoken communication feel less transactional and more like it came from a real person.
How to build rapport quickly
Use small moments of levity and ease to strengthen bonds between colleagues, clients and teams from the very first interaction.
How to create safer, more open exchanges
Reduce defensiveness and help people contribute with greater honesty and less guardedness in meetings, workshops and everyday conversations.
How to bring ease into pressured environments
Use appropriate, light-touch humour to make work feel less heavy without losing focus, professionalism or credibility.
How to lead with more human authority
Understand how appropriate levity strengthens rather than undermines leadership presence, and how the most trusted leaders use it deliberately rather than by accident.
"Employees who rated their leaders as having a sense of humour were more satisfied, more creative and performed at a higher level."
Time Magazine
"A sense of humour in business environments reduces hostility, relieves tension and improves morale."
"A survey of more than 700 chief executives found that 98 percent prefer job candidates with a sense of humour, and 84 percent believe people with a sense of humour do better work."
What the session covers
The outline below reflects a strong baseline version of the half-day workshop.
The emphasis can shift depending on your team, your goals and the kinds of communication or culture challenges you want to improve.
In the full-day version there is more time for exercises, live examples, group work, brainstorming and direct feedback on what the team creates in the room.
Everyday levity with intent
What levity actually means, where it can be used and why small moments of lightness can have a meaningful and lasting effect on how a team feels and functions.
Appropriate humour and communication
How humour, playfulness and lightness can be applied safely and appropriately in written and spoken communication, without tipping into awkwardness or forced fun.
Ways to be more relatable
Practical approaches to making communication feel more open, more human and more memorable without trying too hard or losing credibility.
Practical applications across everyday communication
How to apply these skills across written and spoken interactions with colleagues, management and clients.
Braver brainstorms
How a little permission, lightness and play can help teams contribute earlier, think more openly and generate ideas with less guardedness and self-censorship.
Take the workshop into a live comedy venue
A full workshop delivered on a real stage in a working comedy venue. All the practical value of the core workshops, in a setting that makes the day feel genuinely different
A one-off company event featuring professional comedians and bespoke material written around your people, your industry and your culture. The tone is agreed with you in advance
Workshop by day, unique stand-up show by night. Skills, shared laughter and one memory that will outlast any standard away day
Pricing and formats
Prices reflect a strong baseline version of the workshop.
Tailored content, travel outside London or additional coaching may affect the final fee.
All options include a pre-session conversation to shape the day around your team.
Relevant for Chief People Officers, HR Directors, L&D Directors, senior leadership teams and anyone responsible for culture, team morale and how people communicate day to day.
A focused, practical session delivered at your premises
Duration: 3 hours
Ideal group size: 8 to 10 people
Best for: a focused session on using levity, warmth and human connection to create a more open, energised and psychologically safe team culture
Style: interactive and practical with exercises drawn from comedy and performance that build genuine ease rather than forced fun
Result: people leave with a clearer understanding of how levity works, practical tools for warmer communication and a noticeably lighter team dynamic
More depth, more live practice and stronger behaviour change
Duration: 6.5 to 7 hours including breaks
Ideal group size: 8 to 10 people
Best for: teams who want deeper work on culture, trust and the specific communication habits that make rooms feel safer, warmer and more productive
Style: more room for team discussion, applied exercises, individual reflection and the kind of extended practice that makes behaviour change stick
Result: a team that communicates more openly, collaborates more effectively and brings a healthier energy to the working day on a consistent basis
The full workshop delivered on a real stage in a working comedy venue
Duration: full day
Ideal group size: 8 to 10 people
Best for: teams who want the full TLW experience in a setting that demonstrates everything the workshop teaches from the moment they walk through the door
Style: same interactive format as the full-day, delivered on a stage in a venue where warmth, ease and human connection are built into the environment itself
Result: everything the full-day delivers, in a space that makes the whole premise of the workshop feel immediately and viscerally true
stand-up comedian
"A joke is a tiny revolution. It topples tension and lets trust walk in."
Industrialist, Philanthropist, Robber Baron*
"There is little success where there is little laughter."
"the father of modern advertising"
"The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible"
What people say about working with Alfie
MYSTERIOUS, YET BRILLIANT, FREELANCER
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For teams who need sharper thinking, stronger development and better material before delivery even begins. The workshop that works on the idea before anyone has to stand up and present it.
Best for: idea generation, shaping material, sharper messaging and stronger creative thinking.
Ready to find out if The Levity Works is right for your team
Frequently asked questions
Do you offer ongoing coaching or longer programmes?
For teams who want more than a one-off session options include 1:1 coaching, repeat sessions and broader programmes shaped around ongoing communication and performance goals.
Best discussed on a discovery call.
Is this just a fun team-building session?
No.
It should be enjoyable, yes, but this is not fun for fun’s sake.
The workshop is designed to show teams how appropriate levity, humour and playfulness can strengthen morale, reduce defensiveness, improve connection and support a healthier working culture.
Is this still appropriate for serious or senior teams?
Yes.
In many ways, it is especially useful there.
The workshop is not about silliness or forced banter. It is about using appropriate levity and more human communication to strengthen trust, openness and morale, all of which matter just as much in serious environments as anywhere else.
What are the payment terms?
Our standard terms are 50 percent on booking and the balance within 14 days of delivery.
For larger organisations with established payment processes, we are happy to discuss terms that work for both sides. Just raise it on the discovery call.
Do you travel?
Yes.
Workshops are usually delivered in person, and travel can absolutely be discussed. 1:1 coaching is more appropriate for video conferencing.
For bookings outside London, additional travel costs may apply, and for longer-distance work, accommodation may also need to be covered.
All of that can be discussed clearly at discovery stage, before anything is confirmed.
Can the workshop be tailored to our team?
Yes.
The page outlines a strong baseline version of the workshop, but the emphasis can shift depending on your team, your culture and the kinds of communication or morale challenges you want to improve.
Some teams may want more focus on internal connection. Others may want more emphasis on client-facing communication, leadership tone or brainstorming.
What group size works best?
Workshops are typically designed for around 8 to 10 people to allow for real depth, practice and feedback.
Smaller groups allow for even more individual attention. Larger groups can still be accommodated, but the delivery may need to be adjusted to suit the format and goals.
Is this about teaching people to be funny?
No.
Nobody is being trained as a comedian, and the goal is absolutely not to turn the workplace into an open mic night.
This is about helping teams use lightness, warmth and appropriate playfulness more effectively in the way they communicate and work together.
Who is this workshop best suited to?
The Levity Works is designed for teams who want a happier, more connected and more resilient working culture.
It is especially well suited to Chief People Officers, HR and L&D teams, and senior leaders who understand that how a team communicates day to day is not a soft concern, it is a performance and retention issue.
Infrequently asked questions
What was the best-selling book in the world in the year the first text message was sent?
It was sent by engineer Neil Papworth to Vodafone director Richard Jarvis, who was at a company Christmas party and did not reply, presumably because mobile phones could not yet send texts back.
What is the collective noun for a group of flamingos?
You can decide for yourself what a group of short and dehydrated Yorkshiremen should be called...
If Wile E Coyote's budget were real, what could he have bought instead?
Products included rocket skates, earthquake pills, an Acme bat-man outfit, a dehydrated boulder, an Acme jet-propelled unicycle and, on one occasion, an Acme female Road Runner costume whose strategic logic remains unclear.
The evidence suggests their marketing is extremely effective.
Can I marry someone for their Tesco Clubcard points?
A marriage motivated entirely by loyalty scheme benefits would not, on those grounds alone, be considered void. English law does not require love as a precondition. It requires consent, capacity and the absence of certain prohibited degrees of relationship. Tesco does not appear in the prohibited list.
Clubcard points are non-transferable between accounts under current Tesco terms and conditions. You cannot merge two Clubcard accounts upon marriage in the way you might merge finances or Netflix subscriptions.
What you can do is shop together, accumulate points jointly on a single card and present that card at the checkout as a household unit, which is essentially what most long-term relationships become anyway.
