Tip 33 - Language precision: the key to success?
Do you find that some conversations are ‘muddy’ or vague? After talking to someone, do you sometimes come away with an incomplete picture? Do you get bogged down with irrelevant details? Can the content of a discussion become too distracting?
John Grinder, the co creator of NLP, developed a way to identify and challenge vague and incomplete statements with ‘precision questions’
... <click here> to read the full version.
The Double Positive Story
On hearing one of his students use the expression "I don't know nothing about it..." a teacher took the opportunity to explain about double negatives and correct grammar to the class.
The teacher explained, "In the English language, a double negative makes the statement positive, so your assertion that you 'don't know nothing about it' is actually an admission that you do know something about it."
Encouraged by the interest in this revelation among certain class members, the teacher went on to demonstrate more of his knowledge of world languages, "Of course, not all languages operate according to the same grammatical rules. For example, in Russian, a double negative remains negative, although perhaps surprisingly, there is not a single language anywhere in the world in which a double positive makes a negative."
At which a voice from the back of the classroom called out ironically, "Yeah, right!"
author unknown
The New Hotel Employee
A new hotel employee was asked to clean the elevators and report back to the supervisor when the task was completed. When the he failed to appear at the end of the day the supervisor assumed that like many others he had simply not liked the job and left.
After four days, however, the supervisor bumped into the new employee cleaning in one of the elevators. "You surely haven't been cleaning these elevators for four days, have you?" asked the supervisor, accusingly. "Yes sir," said the employee, "This is a big job and I've not finished yet. Do you realise there are over forty of them, two on each floor, and sometimes they are not even there?"
author unknown
Tickle Me Elmo
This allegedly took place in a factory in the USA which manufactured the 'Tickle Me Elmo' toys, (a children's plush cuddly toy which laughs when tickled under the arm).
The legend has is it that a new employee was hired at the Tickle Me Elmo factory and she duly reported for her first day's induction training, prior to being allocated a job on the production line. At 08:45 the next day, the personnel manager received a visit from an excited assembly line foreman who was not pleased about the performance of the new recruit. The foreman explained that she was far too slow, and that she was causing the entire line to back-up, delaying the whole production schedule.
The personnel manager asked to see what was happening, so both men proceeded to the factory floor. On arrival they saw that the line was indeed badly backed-up - there were hundreds of Tickle Me Elmos strewn all over the factory floor, and they were still piling up. Almost buried in a mountain of toys sat the new employee earnestly focused on her work. She had a roll of red plush fabric and a bag of marbles.
The two men watched amazed as she cut a little piece of fabric, wrapped it around a pair of marbles and carefully began sewing the little package between Elmo's legs. The personnel manager began to laugh, and it was some while before he could compose himself. He approached the trainee. "I'm sorry," he said to her, not able to disguise his amusement, "but I think you misunderstood the instructions I gave you yesterday.... Your job is to give Elmo two test tickles."
author unknown
