Jerry Colonna
You Might Be Part of the Problem
Inspired by Jerry Colonna episode
Jerry Colonna asks: How am I creating the conditions I say I don't want? Turns out you're the architect of shoe chaos every morning.
Your kid melts down about shoes every single morning. You're baffled. They have twelve pairs! Why is this so hard?
But here's what's actually happening: You're already fifteen minutes late. You're giving them five shoe options when their brain hasn't even loaded yet. You're stressed, so they're stressed. Then they pick the wrong shoes and you sigh like they just failed the SATs. You've accidentally built a perfect system for shoe-related meltdowns.
Jerry asks leaders: How am I complicit in creating the conditions I say I don't want? Not because you're a terrible person—because you can't fix problems you can't see your role in.
The shoe thing? Maybe you need to pick the night before. Or offer two choices instead of twelve. Or accept that rain boots with shorts is fine and nobody at daycare cares.
You're not the only variable—kids are chaos agents with their own agendas. But you're the only variable you actually control.
