Werner Erhardt - We share some of the most important historical material by Werner Erhard, including articles on personal development, business leadership skills, and corporate performance management.
Straight Talk Tips are produced monthly, highlighting aspects of the Straight Talk approach to effective communication. They serve as reminders of the process for those who have been through the Straight Talk training. They are also an introduction to the concepts on which Straight Talk is based.
Mission, Vision, Values, ...The words roll off the tongue so easily. How much time have we spent revisiting them, strategizing around them and trying to align people with them! But talk is cheap. Walking the talk is a different proposition, and the problem with values is that what you say about them is irrelevant. It’s what you do about them that counts. Test yourself on some your organisation almost certainly says it aspires to.
It's all very well saying 'Get your bounce back', but if you've really lost it, where do you start? You could try getting yourself into a good physical space, build up your energy, eat right, sleep right, exercise ... you know the drill. If it was so easy, everyone would be doing it!
No, it's another train. We don't know how long our current troubles will last, if they will get worse before they start to get better, or how badly each of us will be affected. The immediate problem for everyone is the same. How do I cope?
There's someone driving you crazy. It could be a colleague, a friend, family member, neighbour or employee. It could also be your boss. There are many ways that people drive us crazy and most of us use similar behaviour patterns in coping with them.
It's four months into the year and most of us haven't stopped for breath since it started! Deadlines are shorter, budgets are tighter. It's all about getting the job done. We give instructions. We expect results. But as tempers become more uneven, communication becomes more strained… and obtaining results becomes more and more difficult.
Most of us claim to live by the value of caring for others. We forget that on a day to day basis we are judged, not on our words but on our actions , and that often these do not live up to our declared ideals. Here are three ways you can show caring, and let your actions speak for themselves.
It's interesting how the conversations that people bring to Straight Talk workshops change from year to year. Recently, it seems like everyone is moving office, or more accurately, moving from an office into an open plan environment: often, with much trepidation!
We're scarcely into the year and already the holidays are forgotten and most of us are back up to the stress level we had at the end of last year. How does it happen?
You’ve probably all had the experience of the manager who storms into your office to tell you, often in no uncertain terms, what’s gone wrong and how he, or she, wants you to fix it. Without discussion or negotiation, you are instructed what to do, how it must be done, and by when. When he, or she, has gone, you may sit wondering why this is a problem at all, or smiling because you have already fixed it, or already deciding that the solution you have been given won’t work. Even if the proposed solution is workable, your commitment to it will be questionable at best.
