Why aren't you laughing?

Colleagues,
 
A couple weeks ago I shared a cartoon that my mom had sent to me in this post. 
 
Later, I was talking with her about how she chose what comics to send me and one of things she said made me think about new leaders. Mom said, “sometimes I find a cartoon that’s funny, but it is part of a story, and I don’t think you would see the humor in it without knowing the full story.”
 
Think about that for a minute. Something that is funny in one context won’t be funny outside of that context.
 
This is true for organizations and people’s actions within them as well. Imagine becoming the leader for an organization you’ve never worked for before. It’s like stepping into someone else’s story. The organizational history is the story of all the people that are working there.
 
Like the comic strips, many of the things we encounter in the organization may not make sense if we have not been a part of the story all along.
 
If we begin to change the narrative, without understanding what came before, we risk creating a new story that makes no sense to the people who have been writing the old one.
 
Before you begin to change a story, try and learn about every chapter that came before.
 
Do good and be well,
 
Frederick