Communication Breakdown

Categories: general, history

Date: 04 March 2009 19:07:58

I am currently enduring a 4 part Management/Supervisor's course in work. So far we've done 2 parts and will do the next one at the end of April. What amuses/frustrates me is that I am not a manager nor a supervisor. Therefore I have to laugh when I'm told to go back and practice what I've learned, then report back at the next section.

I have pointed out that we are an office of 5 people plus our manager and that I have no one to practice on. I know that the "plan" is that I'll be the next manager but feel bemused by the way the company prepares you.

Yesterday we learnt about communication skills. It turns out that I'd done this 4 years ago on a Customer Care course at my last company. We had to do an exercise to see how effective our listening skills were. Our instructor read out a news report in a flat, monotone voice, with no eye contact. We were then asked questions to see how much we'd learnt.

At the end of the exercise we totted up our points and were told that no one would get much more than half right. As I got 15 out of 23 I was chuffed to have proved her wrong and prove to people that I actually listen more than they think. She was right that the next closest to me was on 13 and the majority achieved 11 or less.

Today in History:

1681: Charles II grants William Penn, a quaker, a charter to establish a colony in North America. Being a modest bloke William called it Pennsylvania. He also established a monopoly in the supply of oats. Have you ever wondered why they're called Quakers? It is because their first church was destroyed in an earthquake and that the congregation believed that it was the voice of God talking to them.

1685: Charles II declares war on the Netherlands. They'd tried marketing their own brand of porridge oats and threatened William Penn's monopoly.

1824: The Royal National Lifeboat Institute is founded - underneath a rock on a beach in Cleethorpes.

1933: Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd President of the USA. He will be the only President to win 3 terms in office. Popular chap then... Unfortuately it is no longer possible for a President to do this as they are now restricted (thankfully) to 2 terms.

1936: The first flight of the Zeppelin Hindenburg takes place. "Oh, the humanity!" was said a few years later.

1941: Those plucky Brits raid the Lofoten Islands, Norway, and capture a German Enigma machine. Churchill was upset that there was no problem rapped around it.

1969: Those "loveable" men who "loved their dear mam", Reggie & Ronnie Kray (otherwise known as the Kemp brothers), are found guilty of murder.

1979: Robert Mugabe wins an election to become Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.

2001: The "Real" IRA (not to be confused with the Surreal IRA or the Replica IRA) explode a bomb outside the BBC in London.