Change: Fight it now, praise it later

March 21, 2009

I am a humorist. I was a comic but I found that calling myself a humorist pays better. Of course if I were a humorist consultant I would be rich.

For years I worked at the Second City Theatre and my training was in the art of improvisation. We had no set, no script, and so things changed nightly. We had to be very flexible and use the cardinal rule: say “yes, and” to new ideas, rather than “yes, but.”

But as I moved into speaking in the corporate and public sector, pedaling this idea of “yes, and” became my job. I told human resources people how it was done and they had to admit it was harder than it looked – a lot of people resist new ideas. It’s like what Will Rogers said: “Everybody wants progress but nobody wants to change.” He too, was a humorist.

There are two constants with change. One is: it’s uncomfortable.

And two, it’s more uncomfortable in government agencies. A lot of people are risk averse and now the timeline between one change and the next is shorter. Time is actually speeding up. It used to be that you did your job and thirty-five years later they gave you a watch. But now there are no watches, just watchdogs. There is no job security. When they’re thinking of voting people into the Senate, what chance do the rest of us have?

You are required to be more flexible than ever before, all the while being more transparent than ever before. I spoke for Revenue Canada and they wanted to do a CPIC check on me. I said, can you do a CAT scan while you’re at it because I haven’t been able to see my doctor in months.

Policies and strategies change on a dime. Every time you think you know what you’re doing they change it on you!

So what most of us do to cope is stuff more into our days. We get up earlier, do yoga, and chug a Red Bull. It makes the alternate breathing go faster. We’re on call 24-7. We used to pick up the phone, now we just stare at it and hope they will leave a message so we won’t have to speak to anyone.

There is so much to keep up with. You get the brief. You get briefed on the brief. Usually by your assistant as you walk through the door to deliver what is in the brief to your boss.

Some of you may take the affable approach to change. You use a flexible leadership style. You walk into the room and meet the maddening crowd with a calm reassuring voice: “Listen, don’t think of this as more work for the same money. No. Let’s think of this as another growth opportunity.”

In the good old days, it was called “thinking outside the box.” Or pushing the envelope. (After you’re out of the box there apparently was an envelope to push.) Now it’s called renewal, sustainability, truth to power, or, my personal favourite, “the sweet spot.” Where’s the sweet spot? And no, “the way my BlackBerry makes me feel when it buzzes in my pocket” is not the right answer.

With change comes buzz words. Euphemisms strung together in a sentence. Some of you use them all in one sentence, hoping if you say them fast enough you won’t get asked any questions. I ask you to think about what happens to a brain that speaks like that for years? Is anyone going to want to play cards with you in the nursing home?

And just because your staff is nodding their heads in your general direction, don’t think that they understand you. Half of them hope that if they smile, you’ll leave them alone and not give them any more work. The other half are counting the days until retirement.

As Will Rogers said, “there are three stages to change. The first thing people say is ‘what are they thinking?’ The second is, ‘they better stop this before somebody gets hurt.’ And the third is, ‘I thought of this idea years ago but nobody would listen to me’.”

So that means one more thing. The change you’re all complaining about now is the one you’ll be defending in six months.

Besides being a humorist Deborah Kimmett speaks and teaches workshops on change, collaboration and creativity. She appears regularly on the Winnipeg Comedy Festival and CBC Radio’s The Debaters.

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Categories: News..., Personal Growth, You're Entitled to My Opinion |

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