A number of years ago, one of my former managers who had
been charged with reversing a extended slide in advertising sales at our
publishing company addressed a room full of editors and sales staff on what to
expect in the coming months.
Most of us were fearful of wholesale layoffs and
divisional restructuring and many in secret, including yours truly, were
scouring the want ads (remember those?) in case we were summoned into the
office and summarily handed the dreaded pink slip.
Instead, he held up a piece of construction paper with a
picture of a clock – both hands on 12. He then took a Sharpie and drew one hand
so it was five minutes past the hour.
“Change doesn’t have to be 24 hours,” he said. “This is
change.” We all breathed a sigh of
relief that we would at least be employed for the short term and, in a
storybook ending, within three years our division turned in the best
performance in the company’s 50-year history.
Not to sugar coat it, “change” is often a scary word. For
most, change is often perceived as a negative although it often can be quite
the opposite.
