We should ask ourselves why the industry of comedy has flourished in such an eloquent way during the past few years. Many comics (maybe all of them) use humour to talk about matters such as sex, race, ethnic belonging, religion, politics, discrimination, that is all themes that people do not feel comfortable to discuss in public, at universities and, above all, at work. Therefore it is necessary for us to use comics so that they can exercise our freedom of expression, to say things in our place in an irreverent manner, to emphasize our unexpressed feelings, thus expressing a wish for changes kept back only by fear for retaliation.
And what about Companies? To tell the truth can be a really dangerous thing and you can receive a quick exile for having dared to express one´s own opinion; this is one of the reason why managers are seldom told what things are like, their power intimidates those who should like to express themselves openly. We need comics. Voices outside the chorus that express our thoughts and actions. As a matter of fact, we need the voice of a person who is capable of moving inside a system, often full of ambiguities, without being involved, to look upon phenomena with detachment and being irreverent. A sort of pragmatic desecrator. In every Company there is a need for somebody who continuously reminds the boss that he is naked. A job which, honestly speaking, can be dangerous.
Serious things can also be treated as amusing.Too many managers are convinced that their only task is to defend the status quo and behave like simple resource managers. The excuse is that when opposing changes, they are trying to protect their own organization; in fact they are only trying to protect themselves. Unfortunately, history teaches us (if history really teaches anybody anything?) that the more you protect yourself and your organization against changes, the more you will fail miserably. Therefore you pass from a history of learning to a history of forgetting. We forget that the manager acquires his powers through a constant relation with his interlocutors and in relation to this dynamic, quick and changeable relationship, he must continuously adapt his attitude. When circumstances and relations vary it is necessary and vital to be able of moving towards different development models, which makes it superfluous to continue and insist on preceding behaviour.
To stay in turrets in order to resist change reminds me a little of old soldiers that do nothing but fight before their victorious battles (often only one). One faces life (working life in this case) using only repetitions and returning to the usual obsessions and, in particular, to the desire to make things last for as long as possible. In order not to behave like “old soldiers”, it is not enough to listen to people who work inside the organization; one must be certain that one understands both the language and the culture of the organization. But in order to listen, there must be somebody talking.
And who is it that has courage enough to talk on all occasions if not the fool, the comic, the court yester who says what he thinks, even if nobody asks him? How many times would we not have given ourselves a big kick in the backside? That which seems unpopular has become the current jargon! We
could have taken the merit for it but we were afraid to talk outside the chorus. “Silence is gold”, but this is not always true. All organizations have
ambiguous and contradictory situations on the inside, and it is
vital to identify and comprehend their messages. It is not possible to handle a Company without
understanding and analysing this ambiguity: it is not enough to accept its stimuli, but one must act according to it and make it emerge.The courage to be curious. In order to create something new, one must be unsatisfied with the old, with status quo. In order to shake things up, it takes an agile and curious mind! It is true that even at the top of success, you risk falling and be forced to recommence, i.e. to “last” for a short time. The wisdom of ancient Greeks reminds us that only Gods are granted ruling without obstacles and impediments (forgetting this leads us to commit the sin of Hybris).
One must learn to pass from the logic of “duration” to that of “leaving”. Leaving may seem like defeat, abandonment, withdrawal or decline. It is much more than that: leaving means creating values. In particular durable values. The more we strain to “last”, the more our fear increases; the more stupid and slow-reacting we become, the more we become like old soldiers, embracing the past, whereas the present only give us continuous defeats. The more space we dedicate to “leaving”, the more we are forced to listening; the more we listen, the more we discover durable values and the more we spread them. And, finally, we also learn to discover our limits in order to “leave” room for new ideas, new opportunities and new faces.
I shall laugh when you cry and you´ll say about me "He was right all the time" and you´ll understand why.
I shall laugh when you cry
and you won´t be able to hide the impact I made on thee
in gestures and ideas,
but slowly you´ll be quite surprised seeing that you gave me right as time gradually went by
and you´ll be as I wished, though I´ll be far away from you