It was a quote for the ages, and came at a time when I needed to hear it most.
During a chat with a brilliant I.T. acquaintance of mine, he explained his company's general reaction to his shifting them off Microsoft Outlook and onto the Google cloud:
"Don't change anything. You're only going to make what's bad even worse."
Yowza!
It's one thing to resist change because you're in love with your current situation. Such was not the case here; his people were ready to accept a crummy status quo that they were far from enamored with rather than even trying something that may be way better.
In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt uttered the legendary "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." With all due respect, my lesson this week paraphrases his words in that:
"The hardest thing to change is resistance to change itself."
Believe me, I'm inhaling these fumes every day at Just For Laughs. Not that the company doesn't realize it requires a profound, far-sweeping overhaul, but the feeling that "don't change what is broken" still permeates.
So what do I do?
Well, in a lesson from Macolm Gladwell's ground-shaking tome "The Tipping Point," I'm starting small.
The way I see it, everything a comedy-driven organization does should be a talk point. The way we answer our phones. The way we walk into a meeting. The way we pay our bills.
I could go on for gigabytes, but I'm starting with the last example above.
Just For Laughs sends out over 20,000 checks a year. And to me, each one should be an ambassador of our spirit, our soul, our brand.
So beginning this morning, every check will be branded at the bottom with a smart-ass comment that only we can get away with. Our inaugural effort:
We're gonna be switching this up every few weeks or so, and as we get closer to the Festivals themselves in July, our accounts paid will be emblazoned with everything from jokes to special ticketing offers to treasure hunts. The mere act of getting paid by us will be an event.
Today, our checks.
Tomorrow...ahh, just wait until you see what we have up our sleeves!
This may not change the world or make things "better" per se, but it certainly doesn't make things worse.
And in the fight against an inbred resistance, that's a mighty fine start.