How can any company know if its processes, products, people are safe? Only if everyone is watching and telling the truth. The first part can be assumed; the second cannot.
Margaret HeffernanRead
Words are how people think. When you misuse words, you diminish your ability to think clearly and truthfully.
Interpretation
Misusing words can lead to unclear and dishonest thinking.
Margaret Heffernan emphasizes the importance of language in shaping our thoughts and perceptions. When words are misused, it not only renders communication ineffective but also corrupts our ability to think logically and honestly, ultimately impacting our understanding of truth and clarity in our decision-making processes.
In practice
During a speech on effective communication, one could quote this to stress the value of precise language.
How can any company know if its processes, products, people are safe? Only if everyone is watching and telling the truth. The first part can be assumed; the second cannot.
Most executives I know are so action-oriented, or action-addicted, that time for reflection is the first casualty of their success.
Once you have power, you are inevitably surrounded by people who have their own agendas and will tell you whatever advances them.
If the company depends entirely on you - your creativity, ingenuity, inspiration, salesmanship or charisma - nobody will want to buy it. The risk and the dependency are too great.
Those in powerless positions aren't about to complain about bullying bosses, abusive supervisors or corrupt co-workers. There is no safe way to do so and no process that promises redress.
Bosses and leaders everywhere should cherish the people who bring them bad news, disappointing data or hard problems.
What did you put in the fire?" Kaladin said. "To make that special smoke?" "Nothing. It was just and ordinary fire." "But, I saw-" "What you saw belongs to you. A story doesn't live until it is imagined in someone's mind." "What does the story mean, then?" "It means what you want it to mean," Hoid said. "The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think , but to give you questions to think upon. Too often, we forget that.
You can learn much about life from a checker game: surrender one to take two; don't make two moves at one time; move up, not down; and when you reach the top, you may move as you like.
The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.
It's all about knowing that everybody that you see, everybody that you sit across from is a different aspect of yourself. So once you can accept yourself on every level, that's when everything opens up, that's when the party really begins.
This is the key to time management - to see the value of every moment.
Pity sidesteps complexity in favor of narratives that we're comfortable with, reducing the nuances of a person's experience to a sound bite.
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