Doing the corporate nod

Last week I saw the Blue Man Group. One word: singular. I'm not even going to begin to categorize the performance. But in case you are wondering, yes, they are blue.

What interested me was that the performance could be viewed both as fun entertainment, and at a deeper level, as social commentary. The drama of our working lives is not dissimilar, particularly when it comes to how we communicate with one another. We say things because we have to fit in. We do the corporate nod because it's expected. But inside an entirely different dialogue is on the go and that internal dialogue is often reflected in our behaviors.

"Yes, love the idea says one manager to another," while secretly thinking "stupidest thing I ever heard," and s/he quickly rush off to do …..nothing. Well of course employees are not stupid and when they see the leader "doing nothing" they will take their cue from his or her behavior and they too will "do nothing".

All the fine words in the world will be ignored because our eyes tell us what's really important.

Oh the drama of the workplace!