Beyond Corporate Bullsh*t with Straight-talk

I just entered a new venture in my career as a senior consultant, and my new project manager gave me this awesome book to read, "Beyond Bullsh*t", i was so impressed by the book that i wanted to write my experience and some key highlights from the book for my readers.


The book starts with "Management Politics is like a sea gull" it will glide by you so smoothly that you won't even notice when you go trapped in it. Bullsh*t has become a second nature in professional work environment. A simple concept is coated with petals and color using high-tech features in presentation to make it look attractive. A cake is a cake, you can spend 1 hr or 10 hrs to make it; it will still be a cake.


A "positivistic" work culture makes it even more difficult to keep track of bullsh*t directed your way. Truth-finding contrast sharply with what gets accomplished with bullsh*t. Bullsh*t entails on-sided, buyer-beware advocacy.

All of us have personal motives and aspiration each day, however we bullsh*t it and twist it to the organization benefit to promote our future growth. Because stating your true goal will lead you to "Hell's Kitchen."

Why not one follows "straight talk" culture, i can bet 90% of us don't even know what it means. So here is my two cents on what "straight talk" is all about? Inner integrity is important to straight-talk. One cannot preach the gospel if they don't believe in it. Straight-talk relationships are concerned with the self-interested pursuits and well-being for the people they want to persuade. Straight-talk has a moral/ethical non-conspirational nature.

Straight-talk is more rigorous than truth-telling. While there are many reasons to tell the truth, there's only one underlying reason for straight-talk: self-and other-integrity. Truth-telling entails power-taking; in contrast Straight-talk entails power-sharing.
As my project manager says "So you done talking, where's the action," the next section talks about the techniques that one can use to master straight-talk.

The technique of “I-SPEAK,” it sounds so easy and natural but little more practice to master. “I-speak” is remarkable in its ability to let other know that what you are saying reflects what you, idiosyncratically, think. At the same time, it clearly implies that they may think something quite differently-and have every right to do so.

I-speak implies that your thoughts are the product of personal experiences, life lessons learned, and acquired wisdom. My mother has always be a straight shooter, she lays the facts directly which correlates to TRUTH-telling in this blog. Though she is right, it has always had a very minimal positive response from my side, and has always been one-sided accountability. In contrast my father uses the “I-SPEAK” technique to get this point across and that had tremendous impact on me as it would always leave room for me to express my opinion and avoid the win-lose right-wrong argument. It implied a relationship of equality and a commitment to fair play.

Mr. Samuel Culbert summarized “straight-talk,” in his book Beyond Bulls*t as communication, in word and action, on a variety of agendas, in which self-interested parties seek to truthfully represent their views, with genuine concern for the agendas and well-being of others and collateral concern for the impact on the organization. Straight-talk is not on-time conversation. It’s not simply a candid spontaneous discussion. Rather it is a candid encounter in the context of a reciprocally supportive and caring relationship.

When it comes to straight-talk relationship is king. People live dynamic lives, people change as circumstances changes, to keep the straight-talk intact you need to keep yourself current and invest your energy in it. If you want to know what you said, you need to ask the other person what he or she heard. Straight-talk can be either a blunt and factual statement or it could be political correct statement. It all depends on the relationships that exist between the two parties. Timing is a key in straight-talk, when you communicate the message to person make have a positive or a negative impact to their self-esteem.

A positive relationship with the boss is way more important that pay, assignment, creative opportunities, even better is a mentoring relationship and to add icing on the cake would be a straight-talk relationship. Interpersonal chemistry, trust, and loyalty that determine the level of candor possible in a boss-subordinate relationship.

Never expect people to say the absolute truth in straight-talk as they are not required to. Straight-talk relationships have an efficiency everyone finds attractive. Operating with minimal need to hide self-interests allows you to get quickly to the point.

Straight-talk is only recommended with people who have the capacity and inclination to follow through and reciprocate. In many ways this is the mirror image of what is required of you. The easiest and least risky time for straight-talk is when someone else initiates it.

Three aesthetic qualities that will enhance the ability to engage straight talk relationship are: genuine interest in knowing about the personal lives of people you meet, greeting people with an open heart, non-collusive style of loyalty.

On a closing note, I wanted to share with you all the new buzzword in the industry “mokita”- it means the truth everyone knows but no one speaks.

Re-Discover-Mustang Power!!!

I live on top of the world, in the land of frozen lakes, and breathtaking fall; where leaves change its color to fiery red; in the heart of america "Michigan." In my gorgeous land when spring finally comes to save me from a perpetual winter the world comes to life again..

And i remember what it is I'm here for. I'm the only daughter, and i am a true "daddy's girl".
Riding horses has been my passion since early childhood, i love to watch these enormously beautiful species rediscover the world, i can see in them an expression of my own restless spirit. Charged with an appetite for adventure they take to the land without hesitation. They are pure power. when i see them running wild and free i often think of the first horse in the herd and how they were the true pioneers of America.

The history of the west was written by the horse, whereever men left their footprints, hoofprints were beside it. When settlers came to west they could not tame the wildness of the mustang and called them parasites, they couldnt domesticate them so they destroyed them.

Sometimes when a light disappears afterimage remains just for a moment, and horses are the afterimage of West. Lucky for us few mustang have survived we need to protect them, they are the few promises that are surviving for America...

There is a force in this world that lives beneath the surface something that is primitive and wild that awakens when you need an extra push just to survive like wild flowers that bloom after the fire turns the forest black. Most people are afraid of it and keep it buried deep inside themselves. But there will be always few people that will have the courage to love what is untamed inside us. one of those men is my "FATHER".

Everyone is searching for something, they are restless and unsettled all they are looking to feel how i feel when i am in my father's arm and riding my horse "FREE"

Thats the passion i have for my father and horses, and to continue i stay close to them as heart beat to the heart re-discover ME!!!

WHAT REDISCOVERS YOU!!!

Sweta

Working from Home or Office!!Pick your side

This topic has been more popular than 'Friends' in recent years. Many people on one side of the coin say that: just by working from home they can get away from yucky mornings, sick people at work, be more productive (constant disturbance at work), and take recreational breaks (singing loud, dancing, stretching, lying on the bed).

While the other side of the coin states that one needs to have face-time with higher ups, other colleagues, and build meaningful personal professional relationships.

That said, I personally prefer a mix of both the sides, as it has great benefits, once every two week I would like to stay home and work, be productive get the regular report and time-consuming task completed with focus (no constant disturbance) and other days be in the office, get daily chores completed and build professional network

According to a recent WorldatWork survey, the number of “teleworkers” - the 21st century version of telecommuters - grew to 28.7 million in 2006, including the self-employed. That means about 20% of the workforce works remotely at least once a month (fact picked from one of the gig on fortune).

Can you “telework,” and if you do, are you more productive at home or at work? Is this a generational thing? Or is it just the truth about the office?

Sweta