I'm a troublemaker. I hope you are too.

I attended a team-building exercise this morning. It was nothing terribly exciting, a sort of forced march to "get to know each other better" type affair. The facilitator asked a question and we all had to take a turn answering. I got bored while we were inventorying the attendees best qualities, which resulted in me making a paper airplane. I was still following the discussion. Coworker A thinks his best quality is time management. Coworker B believes hers is having a great eye for design, etc etc. The VP, who happens to be a friend of mine and used to be a mechanical engineer looked over and nodded at my plane. Supposing he wanted to look at it closer, I flew it across the table to him. All of three feet, close to the table. Barely a distraction.

Well, the facilitator noticed. "Oh, you're a bit of a troublemaker, aren't you?"

All my coworkers laughed. It's funny because it's true. "Just demonstrating my best quality," I replied instantly.

By disposition, I don't really get a choice in the matter. I challenge systems because I think. Why are we still doing this process, when this could work better? Could we get the same results doing it another way?

In a work setting, people are often wasting a lot of time performing a task the way they've always done it, for no better reason than that's the way they've done it. Try to get them to do something new and they resist until they can see the benefits. Someone has to do it first!

Once upon a time I was at a bar with some friends. An attractive guy walked in. My companion noticed him. "Go talk to him," we all encouraged her, with the usual round of "you look gorgeous," and all that. She refused. "I can't make the first move!"

To her great embarrassment, I made my way across the room and started chatting him up. He was nice, his friends were funny. After a few minutes, I invited them to come over to our table. Introductions were made. A good time was had by all. My friend was greatly relieved to find I hadn't gone up to him and said something like "my girl thinks you're hot." (Full disclosure: that's not out of the realm of possibility for me.) They didn't get married or anything; it's not a fairytale romance. We all came out of that night with a few new friends. I call that a success.

Someone had to make the first move.

In another case, it didn't turn out quite so well. I went holiday shopping with a friend and her friend. I met up with them the night before to watch movies, play games and generally have some holiday fun. We had a great time, laughing and swapping stories about our hostess. That warm feeling faded quickly the next day. Everywhere we went, she said the same sort of thing. "This place is better than the one in Mississauga. There are so many brown people there, it smells like curry and ass." "At least the clerks at this store speak English." And on and on. By the time we made our fourth stop, I'd had enough.

She was in the middle of yet another offensive comment when I cut her off. "Are you aware of the fact that saying racist shit makes you sound stupid?"

"But this part of town-"

"Nope. No matter where you go, it's all the same people. You're an idiot."

She didn't speak to me again. Later on, my friend phoned me to ask why I'd been such a troublemaker and ruined our day.

Someone had to say something. That's what troublemakers are for.

Mischief managed.