In life, lessons learned can be profound, or somewhat trite. But as long as you learn something, I suppose no lesson is truly dopey.
Which brings us to this week's learning...
Last Tuesday, three members of my marketing team added some spice to a pitch they were making to me by filling our executive boardroom with about 100 green balloons.
Not only did this warm the cockles of my heart (they're learning the "new" Just For Laughs way: Nothing we do--NOTHING--should be ordinary and boring), but the pitch itself was a great one and earned my buy-in in about 11 minutes.
Their work done, the trio returned to their respective offices, but as people entered and exited the boardroom that morning, nature took its course and the human traffic basically distributed the balloons throughout the three floors of our building; from the elevators to the bathrooms and everywhere in between.
Throughout the day, I watched people interact with said balloons.
Most kicked them around playfully. Some caught them as they floated up and threw 'em at others. By and large, the balloons were a welcome addition to one's day; like ice cream, babies and puppies, balloons seemed to be a near-unanimous mood-enhancer.
Note I said "near" unanimous.
I happened to notice a couple of our staff members, upon encountering the floating spheres, intentionally bursting them. One did with a letter opener, the other by stomping on them. The correlation was that these were two of the, shall we say, "less happy" members of our staff.
So, this week's lesson?
Perhaps trite on the surface, but increasingly profound the more I think of it:
BEWARE THE PERSON WHO DOESN'T LIKE BALLOONS
(Yeah, I know some people are afraid of balloons; this phobia doesn't count. I'm talking about people who will go out of their way to pop one.)
From here on in, I just may use this as a personality test next time I have to hire someone (frankly, I think it's equally as good for personal relationships): I'll toss 'em a balloon and see if they'll play along...or of they'll burst their own bubble.
Or, if they really want to impress me, untie the balloon and suck out the helium ;)