Communication is the transfer of emotion
While we’re on Powerpoint, here’s Seth Godin’s fine article Really Bad Powerpoint along similar lines. There’s an ebook of it out there somewhere as well.
The title of this post is a quote from the article.
Cialdini’s principles of influence and how charities use them
Today I had a package through the post from that fine organisation, the British Red Cross, which set a new benchmark for how charities use Robert Cialdini’s principles of influence (as outlined in his excellent book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion) to get people to give them money (US readers can order it here). Now
The benefits of swearing at work
Allowing staff to swear at work can benefit them and their employers,
according to researchers at the University of East Anglia.
Prof Yehuda Baruch, professor of management at the UEA-based Norwich
Business School (NBS), and graduate Stuart Jenkins looked at the use of
expletives and swearing in the work place from a management point of
view.
They identified the relevance and even importance of using
non-conventional and sometimes uncivil language at work and how it may
have a positive impact.
The study found regular use of profanity to express and
reinforce solidarity among staff, enabling them to express their
feelings, such as frustration, and develop social relationships.
The results of the study, Swearing at work and permissive
leadership culture: when anti-social becomes social and incivility is
acceptable, are published in the current issue of the Leadership and
Organization Development Journal (Vol 28 Issue 6, pages 492-507).
The research suggests that while a ban on swear words and reprimanding
staff might represent strong leadership, it would remove the source of
solidarity and in doing so could lead to decreased morale and work
motivation.
However, Prof Baruch and Mr Jenkins stress that abusive and
offensive swearing should be eliminated where it generates greater
levels of stress, rather than helping to relieve it.
Prof Baruch said the use of swearing would continue to rise in
the workplace and become more of an issue for leaders and managers.
"The question is what should we do about it? We offer a model
and some practical advice. Certainly in most scenarios, in particular
in the presence of customers or senior staff, profanity must be
seriously discouraged or banned" he said.
"However, our study suggested that in many cases, taboo language serves
the needs of people for developing and maintaining solidarity, and as a
mechanism to cope with stress. Banning it could backfire."
He added: "Managers need to understand how their staff feel
about swearing. The challenge is to master the art of knowing when to
turn a blind eye to communication that does not meet their own
standards."
Get the full story here.
If you would like to improve the standard of your swearing, I can recommend Roger’s Profanisaurus, from the makers of Viz comic.
Why You Should Care For ‘Negative’ People In Your Organization – and How You Can Turn Them Round
The surprising reason behind a lot of employee cynicism, and how you can change their minds
The Flip: how to start turning your life around right now
You will have seen this picture before. If you look at it one way it’s a caricatured old lady – look, there’s her chin at the bottom centre of the picture. If you look at it another way, it’s a 1/4 profile of a young girl – the tip of the old lady’s nose becomes
Epictetus on learning – thought for the day
“It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.” – Epictetus The most accessible account of the stoic philosophy of Epictetus is probably in Tom Wolfe’s superb novel A Man In Full – an immensely vivid and readable account of all classes in the American South in the nineties.
Appreciative Inquiry: What Is It?
I’ve looked around the web for a short and easy-to-understand description of Appreciative Inquiry for a while, without much success. Which is why I think this article is needed…. What is Appreciative Inquiry? Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a way of looking at organisational change which focuses on doing more of what is already working, rather
Book Review: The Solutions Focus
When the first edition of The Solutions Focus came out in 2002 it marked a genuine step forward in thinking about organisational change. It brought the insights of Solution Focused Therapy (developed in the late seventies by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg) into the workplace. The second edition, published in 2007, broadens its
This Column Can Change Your Life
Oliver Burkeman’s ‘This Column Can Change Your Life‘ in Saturday’s Guardian is an interesting and often witty dip into personal development books and workshops. I’ve found a few useful books through it.
Identifying and clearing limiting beliefs
My all time favourite method for clearing limiting beliefs is Time Line Therapy, or one of the now numerous descendants and variants of it (like the one we teach on our NLP Practitioner training). However, before a limiting belief can be cleared, the client has to recognise it as a limiting belief (unless it clears as a side effect of an intervention aimed at something else, which can happen).
Which opens the question of how do we identify limiting beliefs, and also how we define them.
For me a limiting belief is one that the client recognises as limiting – the client, rather than the coach, decides what’s limiting. The issue is of course complicated because it may be that the client is not initially aware that some of their beliefs are holding them back – it’s part of the coach’s role to help them realise that.
How do we assist the client in identifying them? After all, if the client was aware of their limiting beliefs to start with, they probably wouldn’t believe them any more.
One way can be the NLP ‘meta model’ (which has some overlap with CBT/REBT questions around how rational beliefs are). The meta model identifies generalisations, ‘shoulds/musts’ and so on and provides questions to help the client reconnect their belief system to their sensory experience (or ‘reality’ as most people would think of it).
Another very powerful method is the Option Process or Option Method, as outlined in Barry Neil Kaufman’s book ‘To Love Is To Be Happy With‘ (which Michael Neill recommended to me ages ago and I highly recommend) but also described out there on the web. This uses some simple questions to help uncover beliefs which the client may not be conscious of (probably formed ages ago and not thought about for years) which often don’t survive the light of attention.
Limiting beliefs can also be overcome by having enough experiences which contradict them – as when someone becomes more confident by taking up martial arts, or just by spending time in the company of people with a more empowering belief system. I highly recommend Steve Andreas’ book ‘Transform Your Self: Becoming Who You Want To Be‘ as a guide to how people form their concept of themselves and how to change it.
Socrates on consumerism – thought for the day
“How many things I have no need of” – Socrates Postcard by Public Domain – you can buy it at gatheredimages.com