Making the invisible visible…
A janitor of a middle school was frustrated by the amount of time it took him to scrub off all of the lipstick kisses from the mirror in the girl’s bathroom. He went to the teacher and asked for her help in getting the girls to stop.
She spoke to her class and asked the girls to be respectful of the school property and the janitor’s time and to stop from kissing the bathroom mirror. The lipstick marks increased.
The janitor went to the principal. He asked for the principal’s support in getting the girls to stop. The principal spoke to the class and explained the plight of the janitor. He instructed them to stop and informed them that there would be an extra dance at the end of the year if they refrained from kissing the mirror until then. Nothing changed.
The janitor decided that he was going to attempt to reason with the girls himself. One lunch hour he waited by the bathroom. When the group of girls showed up to use the restroom the janitor plead his case.
“Girls! You have no idea how difficult it is to get the lipstick off the mirror! Please stop… It takes me hours every week to remove your kiss marks! Let me show you…” and then he took his big, stringy, filthy, grey mop and dipped it into the toilet, and then raised it up and began to scrub the mirror…
There was never another lipstick kiss again…
Influence occurs when you make the invisible, visible.
