World Peace And The Piñata of Social Anxiety.

 

Many years ago I was asked during a sales presentation what I thought was the most essential ingredient for a successful project. My answer was “mutual trust”. People in the room were staring at me like I was some kind of New Age Treehugger.

I switched very fast to the normal "plan-and-control" crap to get happy faces again.

Sometimes I wished I would have chosen a different aspect of Project Management. Something like "How to write a plan?" or "How to fill the empty spaces in this checklist?" Talking about culture, visualization, metaphors and social interactions can result in blank stares of your conversation partner.

"They are drawing a TENT on a whiteboard?!!! Why not elves?"
"Wow! Do you know how to draw an elf? Awesome!"

So. Sometimes I backtrack. Finding myself mumbling the words people expect to hear.

"Ze Plan. Boss. Ze Plan!"

It's like in the movie "Miss Congeniality" where Sandra Bullock appears in a beauty pageant. She has to answer the almighty Miss-question "what do yo wish for?". Sandra starts a passionate argument for stronger gun control. She gets blank stares from the audience. The people expect to hear something else from a beauty queen. "World peace!" is what she answers next. The crowd goes wild!

It's not that we change our opinion all of a sudden. It's more the "are you freaking nuts!?" look that makes us yell "World peace!"

Havi Brooks, biggified teacher of stuff, organizes week-long "workshops" during which people can work on their thing. It's actually kind of difficult to explain when you aren't a regular reader of her blog. One explanation:

“So there’s this woman? I kind of sort of know her from online. No, not like that. She has a duck! Anyway, she runs a playground. Yes. It’s like preschool, but for grownups."

A lot of the participants of these Rallies (the actual name of the event) come up with cover stories to tell friends and family where they are going. As one person describes in the comments  what happens when she tries to explain what it is really all about:

"Then I go into DEFCON 4 and that’s when I should just hit “Self Destruct” and shush, but NO, I try to land the bird, like I got any shot in hell of making that landing strip. There’s just awkward phrasing and back tracking and then everyone is left feeling uncomfortable, as though you just watched Caligula with your parents. It’s like a Piñata of Social Anxiety. But with no candy."

So. This phenomenon is "a Piñata of Social Anxiety". The solution is "world peace".

I think the real trick is to take things one step at a time.

"You know, "talking with your stakeholders", it's like Project Communications, but without the Excel sheet with just the names in it."

Or.

"You know all these gadgets you have to impress people? The big SUV you use to drive 10km to work? How 87% of the duration of a meeting you are having a monologue?"

"No. Huh?"

"World peace!"

Bas de Baar is a writer who draws about people in transition. He loves to make visual maps and travel guides for the collaborators of our brave new world.