Time to smile!

When attempting to compose messages for Twitter, wouldnt it be wonderful if they could be of the quality of these old quotes?

The exchange between Churchill and Lady Astor:    She said, ”If you were my husband I’d give you poison,” and he said, “If you were my wife, I’d drink it.”

A member of Parliament to Disraeli:   “Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.” “That depends, sir,” said Disraeli, “on whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”

“He had delusions of adequacy.” – Walter Kerr

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.” – Winston Churchill

“A modest little person, with much to be modest about.” – Winston Churchill

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”  - Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

“Poor Faulkner.  Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”  - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” - Moses Hadas

“He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.” -  Abraham Lincoln

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”  - Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” – Oscar Wilde

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend…. if you have one.” - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.”  - Winston Churchill, in response.

“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” – Stephen Bishop

“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” – John Bright

“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” – Irvin S. Cobb

“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.” – Samuel Johnson

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” – Paul Keating

 

“There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.” – Jack E. Leonard

 

“He has the attention span of a lightning bolt.”  - Robert Redford

“They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.” – Thomas Brackett Reed

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.”  - Charles, Count Talleyrand

“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” -  Forrest Tucker

“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?”  - Mark Twain

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.”  - Mae West

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”  - Oscar Wilde

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination.” – Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” – Billy Wilder

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” – Groucho Marx

Perhaps there is scope for finding fabulous pithy Tweets and saving them for posterity?

Organisational Personality

At first, I thought the concept of organisations having a personality was part of what I understood as an element of branding. But what Fiona Coffey was talking about last night was organisational personality as assessed using Myers Briggs  principles. (I am still recovering from applying a Myers Briggs analysis of my blog which revealed by blog-style to be INTJ – defined as a Scientist !!!).

Fiona Coffey

What Fiona was recommending was that interims and management consultants should consider what an organisation’s personality style could be to understand what sort of approach or techiques could work. A crude summary of her thinking/analysis is that the four styles of Myers Briggs applies:

Energy:Extrovert/Introvert Extrovert organisations could be characterised as looking for answers “out there” or external to the oganisation. Introverted organisations are more inward looking and expect to find solutions “in the family”

Information gathering: Sensing/Intuitive Sensing organisations are more comfortable with incremental change and may focus first on changing structures. Intuitive organisations are more ready to embrace transformational change and consider changing values.

Decision Making: Thinking/Feeling A ‘thinking’ organisation considers it important to “do the right thing” whereas a ‘feeling’ organisation is comfortable seeking harmony and consensus as “working well together”.

Operating Styles: Judging/Perceiving A ‘judging’ organisation wants to “cut to the chase” whereas a ‘perceiving organisation’ doesnt want to miss an opportunity.

Her advice to fellow interim/consultants was:

 - to consider the organisational personality and dont seek to fight it!

 - be respectful of the organisational personality and consider how to match your approach to deliver results

 - know our own working styles and personality type and how to use them to influence the organisation

 - engage in reflective practice: consider the bigger picture as well as focusing on delivery of objectives.

I found the approach interesting and worth considering. The talk was organised by Gatenby Sanderson who provide permanent and interim candidates, principally in the public sector. They will be putting a video of Fiona’s talk onto their website in the near future.

Networking opportunities for interims are really useful to meet people engaged in similar work, and to mingle with the agency team too. Not all providers do this kind of approach – so well done to the ‘GS’ team!