He had a natural way with words ….. brought to our attention the confusion of the English Language. Or course his most famous dialog was The 7 Dirty Words, which went all the way to the Supreme Court. Somehow, George Carlin made them sound funny, not nearly the nasty words they are.

My favorite is the difference between baseball and football:

Football is concerned with downs – what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups – who’s up?

In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.

In football the specialist comes in to kick.
In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.

In his introduction on The Actor’s Studio, in the usually mundane “You were born in ..”, George Carlin submitted “George Carlin was conceived in August 1936 at Curley’s Hotel in Rockaway Beach, New York…”

I encourage you to watch on Bravo, or rent the interview. It is pure George Carlin!

“…It’s always the same … I’m having a nervous breakdown … Drive me insane….”

Is your team not the powerhouse it once was, or the motivating force you envision it to be? Do you find yourself saying “Why did they do that?”, “That’s not what I told / asked them to do!” or “How did that happen?”

If any of this sounds familiar, sounds like your situation, you have a communications challenge.

How do you know what solution, in terms of leadership / teamwork / productivity will best suit your needs? How do you determine if a behavioral assessment will work?

Look at the symptoms you are experiencing, the results you are currently getting, and search for the root cause. I firmly believe that communication, or lack of communication, is the ‘root of all evil’. It can be the cause of many of today’s workplace ailments: frustration, rework, time and money, stress, conflict, misunderstandings and attrition.

It can also be the cause of promotions, high productivity, profits, fun in the workplace, high performance teams, highly engaged personnel, best friends, innovation ….. Get the picture?

It is our differences that spark creativity and ingenuity. It is our distinctions that force us to be inventive and resourceful. It is our perspective that will inspire originality and imagination.

It is imperative that leaders promote, encourage and initiate the entire positive, productive environment that is critical to today’s workforce.

What are you doing to enhance communications in your workforce?

If you are stymied, at a loss, confused or just want another viewpoint, call us. We’ll brainstorm with you, work through the kinks and find alternatives. We will work with you to smash these obstacles!

As you may know. I am an adjunct faculty member in the School of Leadership and Professional Development undergraduate Organizational Leadership degree program. During the fourth semester, the class, in teams, had to do a weekly report and an overall report due the last week of the session.

Because all the students did well with this same team scenario [with a different topic] the previous session, and because I wanted them to focus on the overall report, I told them they didn’t have to do the week 5 team report.

There seemed to be some confusion over this …. In fact, one of the students, Paul Joseph, emailed me:

Shari,

I was looking back over chat archives and mail and I found the reason for my confusion. During the April 23rd class chat, in the admin portion you typed the following:

Let’s not have a team report for week 5, I’ll average your grades if that’s ok

Do you mean:

-the team posting in the discussion area for week 5?

–or

-the HRD Paper that is to be uploaded in the assignment section by one team member?

I thought I was being very clear; apparently I was not because several class members were unsure of exactly what I meant.

It isn’t what I wrote, it’s what they think they read.

Just for fun ….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/science/humanbody/sleep/tmt/

Enjoy!

A recent article in the Houston Chronicle talked about eco-friendly items and what ‘green’ really means. Because of the ambiguity of the word, “greenwashing” has occurred. This is what many advertisers are doing …. spending more time and more money trying to convince consumers that their products are ‘green’. Put even more simply: when consumers get the impression a product is environmentally friendly, yet is not.

See there are no policies or real guidelines about what constitutes something being ‘green’. The latest buzzword, including bio-based and renewable, have not been defined and minimums set.

Be aware the next time you see something called ‘green’, ‘organic’, or ‘eco-friendly’ ….

It isn’t what they wrote, it’s what you think you read.