Gateways is focussed on driving your business towards profit and growth. We work to maximise the efficiencies and utilisation of your entire organisation – both your people and your resources.
Werner Erhard - We share some of the most important historical material by Werner Erhard, including articles on personal development, business leadership skills, and corporate performance management.
People Resolutions Associate (Pty) Ltd is a software development company with a special focus on Human Resource Information Technology Solutions. Our solutions are developed using the latest technologies available from Microsoft.
Integro Learning 's system and process enable your teams to add value in the areas of customer satisfaction, profitability, cooperation & collaboration, innovation and performance sustainability.
Straight Talk Tips
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.
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.
We face difficult conversations every day. Managers face them when they give feedback on poor performance. In our open plan office environments we argue over the background music and how loudly people talk and laugh. In families we struggle to agree on disciplining children and sharing responsibilities. Neighbors get into damaging arguments about dogs, noise and parking space.
I doubt whether any of us have opened a conversation with the words, " I'm more to blame for this than you are, I don't have the facts, and what I'm about to say makes no sense at all!"
Most of us set great store by having all the facts, knowing what is correct and being clear about exactly what is wrong. In most situations, this clarity and certainty serves us well. However, in the difficult and sensitive conversations that occur when there are disagreements over issues about which we feel strongly and which affect our lives and relationships, certainty usually guarantees that we end up arguing.
How often have you made decisions only to find out that you were missing critical information? Have you ever made an assumption, in error, because you didn’t have all the facts? How many times have you thought you had commitment to a plan only to be told, much later, that everyone else had reservations?
We all see the world differently. We hold widely different beliefs and values, we carry different expectations and we feel strongly about our sense of right and wrong. When we confront each other on these issues it is not surprising that things can become emotional and many of us avoid difficult conversations for just this reason. We're scared that it will all get out of hand; we'll say something damaging that we can't retract; or we'll lose control and look foolish.
