It's been a tough time for fliers - frequent or occasional.
The ash cloud, combined with complications prompted by the BA strike creates a dilemma for travel planners. Do you chance a flight? Or be damned to it and take some other form of transport!
You can't argue with nature - that always takes its course. But you can query why a group of people can't cobble together an agreement, especially when leaders on each side of the dispute claim their arguments are perfectly reasonable.
It's often a question of communication. And Focus for Change www.focus4change.co.uk (click on workshops) know a thing or two about communication, working with organisations anxious to adopt smarter working practices. The NHS, emergency services, companies and professional practices benefit from our one-day seminars, part of a wide range of interactive workshops led by the company's expert presenters.
To convey clearly meaning and opinion is a gift too precious to be left to politicians of whatever stripe or level. And it's crucial at the present time of job insecurity.
Think how many times you switch off a TV film or a play because the actors mumble unintelligibly?
The latest translation of the Bible into pidgin is for people with Jamaican background. Hopefully the cost was met by a charitable organisation and not by taxpayers. West Indian friends have no problem understanding the traditional form, though they'll no doubt enjoy a rapped-up version of the Good Book.
But what's the point? In the British Isles we're lucky the Queen's English - OK, so it has a US twist - is recognised throughout the world as the language of commerce and communication.
Yet scarce resources are devoted to maintaining interest in national tongues spoken by a relative few, for instance Welsh. The cost, out of the hard-hit education budget in the principality's schools could be properly included among the cuts the new Chancellor and his team are being forced to consider between the nice-to and the need-to.
People fearful of losing such an important part of their heritage can preserve it as a leisure activity. Taking it from a crowded curriculum would surely better serve the ambitions of pupils looking for a career beyond the valleys where, in the cause of political correctness, the two languages unnecessarily go side by side in public places.
Good communication is an essential tool in business where relationships are crucial to success. In the office, the shop-floor, hospital ward and among the many levels of public service the ability of individuals to clearly understand each other is the first principle of professionalism.
Ambiguity is the enemy of good practice.
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Spare the Rod ...?
You don't have to be a boss to be a bully.
Power over people is not restricted to uncaring colleagues with a sadistic streak. Teacher-bashing is a popular pastime for many 'apprentice adults' who find their lessons boring and reserve their respect only for those they have cause to fear.
Politicians talk about the fractured society. And surely what begins in the home as the neglect of standards or over-indulgence leaches into the wider society - to the nursery, the school, the college and the workplace.
Personal discipline is a burden when aggression is sufficient to grasp your own way.
It's no secret that many dedicated teachers quit a profession desperately in need of their continued inspiration. Daily confrontations with young people in need of the skills necessary for useful, fulfilling lives have left them frustrated - sometimes physically and mentally damaged.
Yet in a society obsessed with health and safety it's hard to understand why some of these classroom victims of violence seem not to have claimed sanctuary within its creeping legislation.
Strategies to stamp out bullying is an important part of a broad portfolio of workshops Focus for Change introduces for organisations determined to free staff of behaviour that seriously interferes with efficiency in the workplace www.focus4change.co.uk Assured of confidentiality and armed with proven methods, concerned managers are able to tease out and deal with the underlying reasons that prompt inappropriate behaviour.
Evidence of bullying in adulthood strongly suggests its origins in the lack of discipline in childhood. Some studies insist that measured punishment for minor misdemeanours has a place both in the home and the classroom. Tough love is part of the learning process which leaves children undamaged and better able to control the instincts that tempt unacceptable behaviour.
Would we, by using a few old-fashioned methods, become a more comfortable and balanced society, with mutual respect restored between generations and among workmates?
Power over people is not restricted to uncaring colleagues with a sadistic streak. Teacher-bashing is a popular pastime for many 'apprentice adults' who find their lessons boring and reserve their respect only for those they have cause to fear.
Politicians talk about the fractured society. And surely what begins in the home as the neglect of standards or over-indulgence leaches into the wider society - to the nursery, the school, the college and the workplace.
Personal discipline is a burden when aggression is sufficient to grasp your own way.
It's no secret that many dedicated teachers quit a profession desperately in need of their continued inspiration. Daily confrontations with young people in need of the skills necessary for useful, fulfilling lives have left them frustrated - sometimes physically and mentally damaged.
Yet in a society obsessed with health and safety it's hard to understand why some of these classroom victims of violence seem not to have claimed sanctuary within its creeping legislation.
Strategies to stamp out bullying is an important part of a broad portfolio of workshops Focus for Change introduces for organisations determined to free staff of behaviour that seriously interferes with efficiency in the workplace www.focus4change.co.uk Assured of confidentiality and armed with proven methods, concerned managers are able to tease out and deal with the underlying reasons that prompt inappropriate behaviour.
Evidence of bullying in adulthood strongly suggests its origins in the lack of discipline in childhood. Some studies insist that measured punishment for minor misdemeanours has a place both in the home and the classroom. Tough love is part of the learning process which leaves children undamaged and better able to control the instincts that tempt unacceptable behaviour.
Would we, by using a few old-fashioned methods, become a more comfortable and balanced society, with mutual respect restored between generations and among workmates?
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