Setting The Stage For A Wonderful Surprise

Setting The Stage For Disaster

I was in a particularly good mood just before I got my surprise for the week. After a few grueling nights of trying to figure out how to interface with a hardware for a project that was almost due, I'm almost done with my last few refinements on the code. This is of course, for me, a small cause for celebration. Add to that the anticipation of something very important happening tonight. This is another reason for me to be in a festive mood! But like a masochist who enjoys punishment he inflicts upon himself, I was just itching to spoil my own happiness so I opened an attachment to an email I received earlier. I knew it was coming and now, all my good mood is down the drain.

Who doesn’t love surprises? But not all surprises come in good packages. Hmm.. I better correct that – not all surprises in good packages are pleasant.

It’s a lot easier to accept if such things happen at work. I’d only have to tell myself – it’s just work and nothing personal. Sometimes, people at work do things without properly setting the environment or without adequate social preparation. I’d prefer to deal with this kind of problem because I can always assume that the bottom line is that these other people are just trying to get things done and bring in the money. But even that is being dealt with around the globe. They have this thing called Change Management.

It’s different when it’s personal. Although some people get easily more excited than others, it’s fairly simple to get others feel the same by promising them something good will happen in the future. Of course, it’s a lot easier to piss them off by telling them a promise can't be fulfilled because it was just a joke. Timing is an important factor and allows more room for creativity. Telling people a promise has to be broken after they’ve made preparations and set their mood in anticipation is a perfect example.

Are there more subtle ways than this? I can think of some -- leaving out important details of the plan and changing the plan from time to time without letting those concerened know. Leaving intentional clues that lead them to find out the changes works best.

I guess I could go on ranting all day and not be able to effect the slightest change. Lesson learned? Learn to communicate more effectively -- let others know what ticks me off and hope they don't do it again. If they're true friends or if they love me dearly, I'm sure they'll come around. ;)