FISH! Lessons from the Dancing Traffic Cop
Have you ever heard of a man named Vic Cianca? If the name doesn’t ring a bell, don’t worry: he’s one of the many unsung heroes of the world who make their communities just a little bit better by virtue of being themselves.
Vic Cianca was a traffic
cop in Pittsburgh who was beloved for his, shall we say, unique ways of directing traffic every day on the job. Rather than just
standing there, pointing the way with his arms, he truly made the job his
own–from pretending to fall asleep when distracted drivers failed to move, to
pleading with traffic to keep going, to even using legs and other limbs to
direct cars, Cianca turned this one intersection into his own Jester’s Court
every day he worked.
He even gained some
notoriety for his antics: not only did everyone in the city love him, but his
passion and humor even made it into the hit 1980’s movie Flashdance, where he served as inspiration for Jennifer Beals’ would-be dancer.
Sadly, Vic Cianca passed away in 2010 at the age of 92, but the way he
approached his job can still inspire how we approach our own, every day of the
week.
Play gets us through the day
Directing traffic is, let’s
be honest, not the most fun job in the world. It’s loud, repetitive, tedious,
and almost entirely thankless. As much as Cianca’s goofiness inspired the
world, it’s likely that he was doing this as much to keep himself entertained as he was doing it to brighten the spirits of those around
him.
That is to say, Cianca took
a fairly mundane job and made it extraordinary by engaging in a deep-rooted
sense of Play. Not only in the colloquial sense of the word with his games and
antics, but also in the FISH! Philosophy sense: In order to get through each
day, Cianca approached his job with an open mind and a willingness to think
outside the box with his approaches to directing traffic.
When we’re feeling
unmotivated, burnt out, or otherwise worn down, engaging in Play can help
re-energize us and bring back that spirit that drives us to do our best work.
By looking at our daily routine and asking ourselves how we can approach things
differently, we can find new, exciting, and more effective ways of tackling
difficult and otherwise demoralizing problems.
Be There and Make Their Day, especially during the hard
stuff
Nobody loves (or even
likes) being stuck in traffic, and nobody loves a traffic cop. Even though
these workers spend every day trying to make things flow a bit more smoothly,
just the sight of one can send you into despair, as it means you’re about to be
stuck bumper to bumper no matter what.
And yet, when Cianca was in
the streets, people smiled. They laughed. They stopped thinking about the
annoyance of the bustling city traffic, even if just for that one intersection.
Cianca’s passion and humor could Make Their Day, and by simply Being There, he
gave them something to look forward to even during an otherwise frustrating
commute.
It’s easy to brighten
peoples’ days when things are already bright and sunny. But being able to make
someone’s day is often much more difficult when someone’s struggling or
unhappy. By consistently Being There for our team and our coworkers, by being
emotionally available and listening actively to them every time we engage, we
can find opportunities to make their days, especially during the really rough
stuff.
Passion is an attitude we choose
While it’s never possible
to truly know someone’s internal motivations, we think it’s likely that Cianca
was less passionate about directing traffic than he was passionate about living life, a passion which was so all-encompassing that he decided it needed to be
brought into his day-to-day job. In our minds, it’s clear that Cianca was
practicing Choose Your Attitude every day–after all, he could’ve come in and
done his job like every other traffic cop, but he didn’t: he chose to bring that passion into the streets each and every time.
For a lot of us, we feel as
though our jobs are divorced from our passions. To us, passions are hobbies
that fill time on evenings and weekends, and work is just something we get
through each day to fund those outside passions. But passion isn’t just an
interest in a particular activity; it’s a zest with which we live our lives.
Whether we bring that
inherent passion into our workplace is a choice we make; we don’t have to love
every part of our jobs, but if we can bring that inner spark that inspires us
into the workplace every day, we can make each day just a little bit better for
ourselves and those around us.
Ideas to Reflect On:
·
What drives and motivates
you? What’s that internal spark that brings you joy? How can you bring that
spark into the workplace, even during mundane tasks?
·
When you’re feeling
unmotivated, how do you recapture that drive? How can you use Play to think
outside the box and find that motivation again?
·
How do we show up for our
colleagues, even when the going gets tough? How can we avoid being a “fair
weather friend” to our coworkers?
Whether you work in business, education, or healthcare, FISH! offers accessible, intuitive solutions to empower your workers, bring your team together, and avoid the symptoms of impending burnout. We invite you to contact us today to speak with our cultural specialist, who will help you find the right FISH! Philosophy solutions that will nurture your organizational culture and motivate your team!
Michael Meinhardt
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