First, an icebreaker. What’s the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?
It was the mid-80’s, and PDI was working hard to break into the television commercial business. We had clients from out of town that had come to spend the day reviewing our progress, giving feedback and hopefully approving the work so far. Their day would be spent in a dark room staring at monitors, requesting changes and waiting (and waiting) while the animator re-rendered sequences to show them. Between the two or three clients from the agency, our producer and a couple of animators, there were usually more people in the room than it could comfortably handle. As President and CEO, I always made it a point to spend some time with the clients – it’s important to let them know they are the single biggest priority the company has. Wheeling an extra chair into the cramped room, I joined everyone for a pizza lunch. Part way through I had to step out to take a phone call (an act I abhor, so I imagine it must have been pretty urgent). Not wanting to interrupt the conversation when I returned, I quietly slipped in and sat back down in my chair. My unusually soft chair… that was oddly warm… and in a brilliant flash of hindsight, I realized that due to lack of table space I had put my lunch on my chair when I left.
Now comes the dilemma. How can you discreetly get out of the room with a big slice of pizza stuck to your ass? Answer: you can’t. So I took the high road. I started laughing and told everyone I had a funny story to share. We all had a good laugh, and I backed out of the room wheeling my chair with me.
We had a washer and dryer at the office (presumably for just these types of emergencies), so within an hour or so I was back. We all had another laugh, and it all turned out fine. I’m sure that story made the rounds back at the agency the next day; it sure did around our office.
The lesson? Pretty simple – laugh a lot and admit it when you screw up.