NLP : Avoid “but”

A word to use with caution is the word “but”! Most people are not aware that this word negates everything in front of it… So when you say ;

Good job, but next time…

The result will be that the good part is not remembered. Doing it the way around will then have the opposite effect.

Luckily enough, there are simple ways to avoid this trap. You can use the words “yet”, “however” or “and” as replacements. These words do not have this negative effect, which will result in your message being passee more effectively.

No is an answer too!

“Yes” in an answer. “No” is an answer too. Even ” I don’t know” is an answer.

To not respond at all is the worst response ever… It’s plain rude & ignorant! How many times I’ve seen this in business scenarios.

“Let’s just play ostrich and let it all blow by. It’s not my problem!”

Sushi Etiquette

Where I do love sushi and sashimi, I was unaware that there was a certain etiquette involved…

False Libelous Info About Yourself?

Bloggers are usually well aware of the dangers of being accused of libel, and that’s why most independent online journalists are very careful to make sure that everything they write about someone on their blog is backed with documentation and evidence. But when someone writes something libelous about you, you need to be well prepared to fight back hard.

So what can you do? Read the article @ makeuseof.com!

Sidenote
In November a Dutch waitress got “shut down” by a Belgian politician after comments about his visit to NY. I guess that’s the downside to the “libel” part, who’s the judge in right/wrong?

Top Ten Communicators of 2008

• Barack Obama – As his star continues to rise, there’s just no contest for #1 Best Communicator.
• Tim Russert – He was one of the best, and we’ll miss him.
• Randy Pausch – An unknown, until he gave one speech about his mortality. (I personally loved his mortality speech and must admit a certain sadness when I discovered he lost the fight against cancer in July 2008.)
• Colin Powell – Always great, in 2008 he gave the interview of the year.
• Mike Huckabee – The one repeat from last year – he can’t be held down.
• John Chambers – A remarkable businessman who’s speaking ability drives his company.Chambers
• Sarah Palin – A remarkable woman in a remarkable rise to celebrity.
• Tina Fey – How could she not be on the Top Ten Best list?
• Anderson Cooper – He’s one of a kind – leading a new breed of journalists.

Source : Bert Deckers’s “The Top Ten Best (and Worst) Communicators of 2008”

Out Cold

Even the best of us get sick sometimes… and so do I! 😉 Yet this post isn’t for pitty sake but to share a bit of knowledge I did not know before. The term “common cold” doesn’t have the “cold” as a cause. Neither heat or cold makes you get a “common cold“, but it’s a pure viral infection. The reason why it’s called this way, is because people tend to stay more inside during colder weather. This increases the infection rate as people are crowded into “small spaces”.

Never underestimate what is inside you!

We’re predictably irrational!

Blending everyday experience with groundbreaking research, Professor Dan Ariely explains how expectations, emotions, social norms, and other invisible, seemingly illogical forces skew our reasoning abilities. Not only do we make astonishingly simple mistakes every day, but we make the same types of mistakes. We consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. We fail to understand the profound effects of our emotions on what we want, and we overvalue what we already own. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless. They’re systematic and predictable—making us predictably irrational.

Institutions versus Collaboration

Check out the following TED presentation on “Institutions versus Collaboration“. It’s a very insightful presentation about the difference between institutions and collaboration. You might actually say that you can identify the closed versus open source movement in there. Institutions want to capture the most performance driven resources, and collaboration focuses on capturing the broadest spectrum of available resources.

http://static.videoegg.com/ted2/flash/loader.swf

In this prescient 2005 talk, Clay Shirky shows how closed groups and companies will give way to looser networks where small contributors have big roles and fluid cooperation replaces rigid planning.

Your Motivated Team

Having a skilled team is one thing, but having a motivated team is what makes the difference. People can go just that extra mile when motivated in the right way. So a mediocre motivated team will outperform a truly skilled yet low morale team any given day. I must admit that the next video isn’t appropriate to use in a business context, yet it’s a nice motivational speech…

Do you think they would have gone the extra inch without the speech? Some might have, but not all… Motivate your team to get the most out of the situation. It will help your project(‘s performance), but also your surroundings… 😉