» Communication

Lesson 1:  “I can’t do that” or “I’m too lazy” When you hear yourself utter or think either of these phrases you need to pause and reflect.  It is easy to say them in a self-depreciating way and think you are joking, but it is worth asking what is really behind this convenient cop-out.  Ask […][...] read more » Four lessons from our self-talk: lesson 1

A Harvard Professor in the 70’s, called Ellen Langer, conducted an experiment, in which she got an actor to barge into a queue of people waiting to make photocopies.  In the first experiment he said “Excuse me, I have 5 pages, may I use the copier?” and 60% of the time he was successful.  When […][...] read more » Hints and tips: Be more persuasive – bonus Tip No 7

Have you noticed that mostly in business we sit opposite the people we are meeting with?  We put great store by looking the person in the eye.  In the animal kingdom, this is a challenge to assess who is the stronger, and if the other is a challenger for power… In business, it’s not so […][...] read more » Shoulder-to-shoulder

We all seem to think that we are good at reading people and ‘trust’ those first impressions and it takes a lot of work, or time and  positive experience to change this if we didn’t like you.  Conversely, we tend assume that others will see our greatness, our potential and love us (just like our […][...] read more » How to understand the mechanics of someone’s first impressions (and influence them positively!)

People are much more persuaded by their own logic and reasons than ours, no matter how clever we like to think we are, so rather than banging our heads against a wall of their logic.  There is a better way.  If I push, they will push back (interestingly, this is not just confirmed Newton with […][...] read more » Persuasion and priorities

I found this wonderful card, which sadly I can’t share here, but it beautifully illustrates how one can look at the same data in two totally different ways.  It shows two overweight ladies sitting in front of a plate of cakes and one says to the other “According to my BMI chart, I’m too short!” […][...] read more » Interpretation

Regular readers may have noticed that I’m quite keen on rugby and these days follow things reasonably closely.  I wasn’t there to witness out first home game; one which was always going to be both tough and telling if we want to challenge for the title this year.  It turned out to be a total […][...] read more » Lies. Damn lies and Statistics…

I was running a workshop yesterday and one of the topics up for discussion was the importance of forming strong customer relationships.  One global company has succeeded more than almost any other in turning its customers into raging fans, despite the fact that not all of their offerings are anything like as trouble free as […][...] read more » Getting close to your customers

Yesterday, a friend and colleague reminded me of something that I always advise others to do, thus reinforcing the observation that just ‘cos you know something doesn’t mean that you actually do it!  I had written a business letter about something that had got under my skin.  It had been on my mind for sometime […][...] read more » Clean communication

Recently Facebook ‘fessed’ up to to manipulating some 689,000 users emotions in the name of science.  Facebook’s data scientists manipulated the news feeds of 689,003 users, removing either all of the positive posts or all of the negative posts to see how it affected their moods.  They wanted to see what effect the presence or […][...] read more » Good news not only works but is required…