STORYTELLING I’m slightly obsessive about pillows. And sleep. And because I’ve endured too many poor nights’ sleep away from home, I’ve just bought myself a travel pillow from a company I found online called Snooze.uk. In the package was a printed note from the owner, Yev. Here’s some of what she wrote about the origin of her small business… “This little pillow means more to me than you might think. A few years ago, my daughter chose to take her pillow with her when we had to leave home in Kherson (Ukraine). Out of everything she could pack, that was…
virtual communication
One of the quirkiest stories to come out of the Milan-Cortina winter Olympics was ‘penis-gate’. According to German newspaper BILD, ski jumpers have been injecting themselves with hyaluronic acid before being measured for their suits. Apparently, this can increase the circumference by one or two centimetres. Bigger appendage, bigger suit, more surface area, increased time in the air. Who knew!!! As well as marvelling at the incredible displays of skill and daring and endurance, I was interested in the array of different types of clothing worn by the athletes. Baggy for snowboarders, streamlined for speed skaters, elegant for figure skaters….
For me, the most fascinating aspect of Celebrity Traitors, apart from Claudia’s eye liner, Jonathan Ross’s outfits and Celia Imrie’s digestive system, was their inability to read each other. Time and again we witnessed them analysing their fellow ‘guests’ and getting it wrong. They repeatedly misinterpreted body language, comments and behaviour. Even though they were in a state of high alert, being hyper sensitive and observant (they knew there were actors in the castle), still they came to the wrong conclusions. On numerous occasions. Some faithfuls were banished for being too quiet; others for the exact opposite. And who wasn’t…
Hands up who remembers the 1983 pop song ‘Kissing with confidence’ and the classic line “Do you have spinach on your teeth?” Actually, scrap that – many of you probably weren’t even born in 1983!!!!!! I was reminded of that song when I returned from a networking event last week, only to discover that I did in fact have a morsel of spinach on my tooth. It had clearly been there through most of the event, during conversations with numerous people. So why had nobody mentioned it? Why did they find this piece of communication so difficult? At the same…
Am I the only one to be a tiny bit tired of discussing AI? And, in particular, weary of the ‘catastrophising’ around it? Of course, we know that it will and is already having an immense impact on us – akin to the invention of the printing press, and we must both understand it and learn to harness it. But it’s not the only game in town. On the Today programme this week, advertising guru Sir John Heggarty spoke about its effect on his industry. Yes, it’s going to take away some mundane tasks (and that might lead to the…
Has there ever been a global political event which provoked so much scrutiny of the participants’ communication style/tone? The already infamous Zelensky/Trump/Vance ‘conversation’ at the White House has given us endless hours of debate and analysis. I was struck by the lack of restraint, an absence of moderation, a dearth of statesmanlike language. It felt a bit like a teenage tantrum (apologies to teenagers) and it’s not how politicians and leaders have typically behaved, particularly in public. The other notable element for me was the comment ‘it’ll make great television’. A giveaway that everything is about performance rather than substance….
So, the Donald is assembling his team of advisors and cabinet members. All loyal supporters and kindred spirits. None likely to naysay their boss. A gush of ‘yes people’. Of course, he’s not alone in disliking criticism and rejecting negative feedback (such as losing an election). It would seem to be a growing phenomenon, especially among young professionals. They, themselves are telling me in the training room that they struggle to accept constructive criticism; that it makes them emotional and overly defensive. Team leaders, business owners and HR people are confirming that something is going on. For any of us…
I don’t know about you but I was obsessed by the Olympics. I revelled in the technical expertise; I marvelled at the feats of endurance; I was in awe of the dedication, resilience and strength (mental and physical). 32 diverse sports but one thing in common for the ten thousand individuals who took part. It’s often called the ‘aggregation of marginal gains.’ Simply put, it’s attention to detail; identifying the small things we can improve by a tiny degree, to give us an edge over our rivals. In the incredible finish of the men’s 100 metres final, Noah Lyles won…
There’s a moment in the excellent BBC three-part documentary The Space Shuttle that Fell to Earth (episode two, 55 minutes in) when the NASA flight director and his team begin to sense that something has gone catastrophically wrong. Screens in the control room are going blank; sensors are failing; contact with Columbia has been lost. We witness their dawning realisation that the shuttle has most likely broken up on the way to its landing location and that the seven astronauts – their colleagues, have been killed. The footage was live and the events were unfolding in real time. And these…
I spent some of the bank holiday (quite a lot of it actually) sorting my kitchen cupboards. There was a lot of rationalisation to be done. For example, I discovered three half-empty jars of garam masala (BTW what even is that????). Now there’s one full jar. The contents of several bags of self-raising flour are now gloriously combined, and a random collection of water bottles has been transformed into a shelf of beauty, as you see in the ‘photo above. You may have deduced that I am slightly controlling or, with a more positive spin, I have good attention to…








