I don’t spend a lot of time with clowns or even thinking about them for that matter. But recently I spent 2 hours with a clown and it got me thinking about a few things. How does this relate to the future of work or living, you ask? For starters, clowns take basic elements and rewrite the rules with the intent of making us happy (I’m not talking about the creepy ones). Companies that are attempting incremental changes to adapt to hybrid and remote work are struggling because there isn’t a linear path to get there. You have to do something completely different and then bring people along for the ride. You also have to make them comfortable with what’s happening.
Clowns take many forms and there is no one formula for how a clown interacts with his/her audience, but for purposes of this discussion, I want to focus on two clowns and the lessons we can learn from them.
The Classic Clown
The idea of the fool or court jester has been with us for a few centuries. Lots of amusement, but not a lot of wisdom. Clowns bring an element of surprise and delight to circuses, festivals, and other frivolities. Traditionally, they are short bits that are often gone as quickly as they arrived. The idea of spending 20 minutes or more with a clown didn’t present itself until about 1914. Charlie Chaplin created a comic character that took us on a journey. Even without an outlandish colorful costume or makeup (less a mustache), Chaplin created an unforgettable clown character. He once said, “I remain just one thing and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.”
For someone who made a living not saying anything, he had a surprising amount to say off-camera. Some are quite profound. Here’s one I found rather timely. “As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my truth. Today, I know, this is authenticity.” During the past three years, lots of people have realized they were living against their truth. For companies trying to implement return to office (RTO) policies, it isn’t likely to succeed because people have already discovered their truth. It’s not a matter of going back to what you did before. It’s about having a new perspective on what that reality was. Once you’ve seen what is true for you, it is next to impossible to go back without pain.
A Modern Clown
It’s sort of a lost art. You don’t see many classic clowns anymore outside of a circus or children’s party. And you rarely see clowns that take you on a journey without saying anything. Enter Puddles the clown. Puddles doesn’t speak but he does sing. You might have seen him on American Idol, The Conners, or at his residency at Caesars Palace. He’s kind of a big deal – even if he wasn’t almost 7 feet tall. For two hours Puddles takes you on a journey and throws in a few lessons along the way.
One of the problems companies faced when their teams weren’t together was realizing they didn’t know how to communicate with one another. Many CEOs went with the logical, but incorrect, assumption that the office was the missing ingredient. A lot of things happen by osmosis in an office setting because we have generally stopped being intentional in our interactions. So rather than helping people be more intentional with the new model, many CEOs are trying to fix the problem by putting things back the way they were. But what if you can’t put things back the way they were?
Like Charlie Chaplin before him, Puddles doesn’t speak. He has removed that from the equation. He has to rely on other forms of communication and be intentional. The show I saw was in a theater that held about 300 people and it was sold out. Most shows start with the performer coming out on stage. Puddles came in the back and then proceeded to shake hands with everyone in the room. It would have been easier to just stand at the entrance and get everyone as they came in. Instead he met people where they were, which meant climbing over about 200 of the 300 people in the room. It took some extra effort and about 12 minutes, but it came across as genuine and hilarious at the same time. At the end of the performance, he made eye contact with each person in the room individually and mouthed the words “thank you”. Again, this was not your classic, “good night everybody” and run off the stage. This took several minutes and for the most part, people stayed near their seats to be part of the acknowledgement.
In between he involved the audience in a variety of ways, and at one point forced a large portion of the audience to interact with one another in a way I’ve never seen before. I won’t spoil it, but it’s something that has to be seen. If it weren’t for the costume, the makeup, and the not speaking, Puddles would just be a talented singer named Mike Geier. But even those elements don’t define Puddles the clown. He is intentional about all his interactions with his audience, and that’s where the magic happens.
Being Intentional
Intentionality is the key to all our relationships. Someone recently said that remote work should be treated like a long-distance relationship. It requires extra work to maintain the relationship, and intentionality regarding being together. Military spouses have been dealing with this forever. It may be harder being apart, but they put in the extra effort to stay connected. Coming home from the office is rarely a big deal unless you have a dog. Nothing about going to the office is intentional. Military members have some of the best greetings ever coming home.
I was in the military during the first Gulf War. When the first planes returned to Langley, there was supposed to be a rather formal ceremony after everyone landed. There were specific instructions about where staff and families were supposed to stand, etc., etc. It lasted about 30 seconds after the first plane was parked and the engines powered down. I’m not sure which spouse broke the security line first, but a sea of family members stormed the flight line. Being intentional can be a little messy, but it makes things memorable.
We need to break the rules once in and awhile, or at least rediscover how we connect. If you are going through the motions at home or work, you probably aren’t being intentional. Make the extra effort for a grand entrance or to make people laugh. If you are remote, just checking in on someone for no reason other than to see how they are going is a good first step too. So take a look around at the clowns and other individuals who are changing the rules in how we interact with one another. We may actually learn something.
