Shochiku Geino's 'Warai-iku' and Chipee Collaborate to Support Resolving Workplace Communication Issues by Combining 'Laughter' Methods with Organizational Development Programs

Shochiku Geino Co., Ltd.'s experiential workshop 'Warai-iku' has partnered with Chipee Co., Ltd., a company supporting employee engagement, to launch a corporate organizational development program called the 'Warai-iku × Chipee Workplace Communication Redesign Program'. This program combines the expertise of Shochiku Geino's 'Warai-iku' in using laughter for experiential workshops with Chipee's side-by-side organizational development support to help resolve organizational issues stemming from communication breakdowns and relationships in the workplace. The program is designed to be tailored to each company's specific challenges, such as retaining young talent, improving inter-departmental collaboration, addressing the lack of dialogue between management and staff, and redesigning workplace communication as companies return to the office.

Shochiku Geino's 'Warai-iku' uses laughter to ease the atmosphere in the workplace, creating a foundation where participants can more easily engage in self-disclosure and mutual understanding. Chipee focuses on building relationships and connections, providing side-by-side support from current state assessment and issue identification to dialogue design, action planning, and effect verification. The goal is to ensure that insights gained in the workplace do not end as a one-time training experience but lead to daily behavioral changes and improved relationships within the organization.

## Background of the New Program Development

The three-year turnover rate for university graduates is 33.8%. Approximately 55% of working adults experience mental distress in May. The background of workplace communication issues includes the challenge of thinning relationships and connections.

In recent years, companies are facing organizational issues stemming from relationships, such as retaining young talent, inter-departmental collaboration, lack of dialogue between management and staff, and the need to redesign workplace communication as companies return to the office.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's report on the employment status of new graduates, the three-year turnover rate for university graduates who started working in March 2022 was 33.8%, and for new high school graduates, it was 37.9%. Retaining young talent remains a critical management issue. Furthermore, a private survey conducted in 2025 targeting 400 working adults nationwide found that approximately 55% experienced some form of mental distress in May, citing reasons such as 'human relationships' and 'unfamiliar work'. Additionally, more companies are moving back from remote work to in-office work. However, simply gathering in person does not naturally deepen relationships. As work styles and values become more diverse, mutual understanding and connections in the workplace are becoming harder to develop spontaneously.

Even when in the same space, people don't speak their true feelings. No one speaks up in meetings. Dialogue across departments or positions doesn't happen. This 'difficulty in speaking' in the workplace leads to various organizational issues, including the isolation of young employees, gaps in perception between management and staff, and stagnation in inter-departmental collaboration.

Many companies have implemented communication training and team-building training. However, a common challenge is that even if the training session is lively, it is difficult to see what changed in the workplace afterward or what behavioral changes resulted. Therefore, in this program, Shochiku Geino's 'Warai-iku' uses laughter to ease the atmosphere and create a foundation where self-disclosure and mutual understanding can easily occur. Then, Chipee provides side-by-side support for organizing organizational issues, designing dialogue, planning actions, and verifying effects, translating the relationship changes fostered during the training into daily behaviors.

## About the 'Warai-iku × Chipee Workplace Communication Redesign Program'

This program is a side-by-side initiative lasting approximately 4 to 6 months, combining Shochiku Geino's 'Warai-iku' with Chipee's organizational development support. Shochiku Geino's 'Warai-iku' is an experiential workshop where active comedians serve as instructors. Through activities such as self-introductions, rephrasing words, and creating comedy skits, it enhances creativity and communication skills, deepening bonds among participants. A key feature is that having comedians as instructors creates a relaxed atmosphere, making it easier for participants to naturally open up.

As a partner supporting organizational development through relationships, Chipee provides side-by-side support for assessing the current state of the organization, organizing issues, articulating top management's vision, designing dialogue, designing workshops, planning actions, and verifying effects.

The goal of this program is not simply to 'become friends'. It aims to ensure that organizational development is not solely the responsibility of management or HR, but that each individual in the team thinks about 'what they will do for this team' and translates that into daily actions.

By using laughter as a catalyst to ease relationships, foster connections, and lead to changes in dialogue and behavior in the workplace, the program creates a starting point for continuous organizational development.

## Program Features

1. Easing the workplace atmosphere with laughter and building a foundation for dialogue
In Shochiku Geino's 'Warai-iku', active comedians serve as instructors and conduct activities such as self-introductions, rephrasing words, and creating comedy skits. By easing tension through laughter, even those who usually find it difficult to speak up can participate more naturally, creating opportunities for self-disclosure and mutual understanding. The program first uses laughter to loosen the rigid atmosphere in the workplace, where people think 'it's better not to say this', 'nothing will change anyway', or 'it's not my place to say', and builds a foundation for relationships conducive to dialogue.

2. Making training a 'starting point for organizational development'
In this program, Chipee connects the atmosphere and insights generated by 'Warai-iku' to organizational issues and the desired state of the team. Through top management interviews, the program articulates what the organization values and expects from the team. Through workshops on self-disclosure and understanding others, it creates opportunities for members to understand each other's backgrounds and values. A key feature of this program is that Chipee promotes the consolidation of the effects of 'Warai-iku' and translates them into concrete actions for organizational development.

3. Translating relationship changes into daily actions
In the program, participants create team promises, set individual actions, and declare and share them. Through questions like 'What do we want this team to become?', 'What will I change for that?', and 'What should I be aware of in meetings, 1-on-1s, and daily communication?', the program aims to make each participant a stakeholder in organizational development. The relationship changes fostered during the training are translated into daily dialogue and behavioral changes.

4. Verifying post-implementation changes and linking to the next organizational development step
After the program, changes before and after implementation are verified through surveys and interviews. What is verified is not just satisfaction levels. Factors such as ease of speaking, ease of consulting, mutual understanding, sense of ownership in the team, and changes in daily behavior are organized and, if necessary, linked to the next organizational development initiative. This ensures the program is not a one-time training but can be used as a catalyst for continuous organizational development.

## Program Flow

STEP 1: Current State Assessment and Issue Identification
Through interviews and surveys with top management, HR, and on-site personnel, the current state of the organization is assessed. Themes are set according to the issues of the target organization, such as inter-departmental collaboration, retention of young employees, dialogue between management and staff, the amount of speaking in meetings, and communication during in-office days.

STEP 2: Building a Foundation for Relationships through 'Warai-iku'
Shochiku Geino's 'Warai-iku' is implemented to ease the workplace atmosphere through laughter. Through activities such as self-introductions, rephrasing words, and creating comedy skits, the distance between participants is shortened, creating an environment where self-disclosure and mutual understanding can easily occur.