Brown isn't your color

I had an interesting meeting today.
Our new head guy is hosting meetings to better understand the department and what we do. The group was a hodgepodge mix from across our teams, but when it boiled down to it the room was filled with brown noses, a self-doubting admin, a Russian and me.

As with any meeting with a higher up, I’ve learned that the higher up you go the less funny you have to be to make people laugh. It’s nauseating.

He walks in, says something that’s casual and not very funny and the room erupts with laughter, like he’s Richard Pryor in his heyday. He’s not.

What surprised me most about the meeting was the lack of self indulgence he showed the group. I was surprised. Most times, when you go to these open-forum meetings, there’s an agenda…even if they say there won’t be. In this case, there really wasn’t. Again – shocking.

He sat there, misaligned in his chair trying to listen through people’s fluffy speeches of who they are and where they come from to see the essence of what each area does. For the most part people are pretty genuine but when there’s poop you smell it.

He welcomed criticism and feedback for the good, the bad and the needs to be looked at. The ideas presented, to make our are a better, were encouraging and realistic. They’re the kind of ideas that, once implemented, will create a better morale and a better work environment. Hearing someone say that your office colors and feel come across as an insane asylum is priceless. “We’re in marketing, for Christ’s sake, we should have creative space, right?” Best line of the meeting.

The only negative I’d pull from it all was his own reservation to be completely honest with the group. When people hear words like outsource and change they freak out. Even with reassurance that we’re fine they’re heads still sit on the ground as they run around like future Thanksgiving turkeys. Gobble, gobble. People get comfortable in the environment they know and function best in. Changing that causes chaos. People don’t like chaos. I say bring it on.

Now, I’m not the best with words, so it’s tough to describe the atmosphere. People were scared to have some coffee or eat some of the provided breakfast items until the leader went first. People are so restricted by image and by fear that they clam up. I find the sociology of it all to be enticing, to say the least. He's an open guy with a lot of good ideas. Funny and raw.

All in all, the new changes are for the good. Not because I was directly told our department is vital but because getting new life flown into these walls can only result in the better. I mostly enjoyed it because people will always brown nose because they think it’s the right thing to do. It’s smelly and the right kind of person, a good kind of person, can smell it a mile away and that makes me smile. Plus, brown isn’t a good color on anyone.