A Digital Story about HIMYM?

ATTENTION: SPOILER ALERT

Whether you were going through a bad break-up and needed something to console yourself with, you needed to laugh when you were feeling crappy about yourself or had a terrible day at work the HIMYM cast was there for you. But after 9 seasons of laughter and tears that were probably caused by laughter, the popular sitcom has finally come to an end.

Fans have sat by faithfully glued to their TV’s wanting an answer to the age-old question that we have all wanted to hear the answer to since the show began. How does Ted meet the mother of his children?

HIMYM starts off initially with Ted searching for the love of his life through the series of the show. In the 9^th season Ted finally meets the woman of his dreams, Tracy “The Mother” and we get to see their characters develop through the season finale and throughout the whole season.

We eventually find out that Tracy dies of cancer and 6 years later Ted ends up with Aunt Robin as per the advice of his kids. Writers Bay and Thomas might have thought that this ending to the series was a great twist to end the popular sitcom, but devoted HIMYM fans were left with a bad taste in their mouth’s after last night’s finale.

Since last night’s release of the finale and, wait for it, “legendary” episode, many fans have expressed their distaste and unhappiness over social media with how the series ended. To some fans it almost seems like a bad April Fools joke, doesn’t it?

Some quotes from fans include “Very terrible ending, especially with Ted going back to Robin” says one fan. Another fan states “ Nine seasons of friends, family, laughs, slaps, a legendary moment that we just pissed all over with one terrible ending.”

The question now remains, how will the HIMYM cast, writers and producers handle the discontent of their fans?

PR representatives have their work cut out for them on this one. In a perfect world they would re-shoot the whole finale and change a couple of things, but we need to come to the realization that might be impossible, maybe we can hope for the 5 next best things any fan could ask for.

The first thing writers, reps, producers and cast members need to do are address fans over last night’s unsatisfying ending. The fan’s need clarity, and explanations as to why the writers and producers chose to end things off the way they did.

• Transparent communication between fans and producers is the good place to start. Ensure everyone’s points of view and concerns are addressed and freely expressed. It is fundamental and a necessity to problem-solving.
• Break down silos and enable a boundary-less organization whose culture is focused on the betterment of the organization.
• Next thing is to be open-minded. In order for an organization to address problems, fans also must be open-minded. In the end, solving the problem is about people working together isn’t it? Being closed-minded about an issue won’t get you anywhere.
• Lastly, you must build a solid foundational strategy. Without having a strategy you won’t see an evolution or a change in the way things are done. Effective leaders will always know how to problem solve and gather the right people, resources, and knowledge from past experiences in order to rectify a problem. Take time to assess the problem before jumping to conclusions.  In this case think to yourself, “what would the fans have wanted?”

It will be interesting to see what course of action HIMYM producers will approach fans with.

Patricia Ferreira, Raven5 Ltd, Oakville, Ontario April 2014.

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