QUOTE OF THE DAY

Thursday, May 24, 2007

The Earth Renewal & Restoration Alliance


The Earth Renewal & Restoration Alliance
One of the sites for the betterment of the environment. I am fascinated by lots of nature's wonders especially big and huge trees..
Worth a visit....









Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Conversation Starters that Work Like Magic

Starting a conversation is one of the hardest parts of communication. Some conversations begin easily, but others seem as if it hard work just to get them off the ground. Having a good idea of great ways to start a conversation will help you avoid problems the next time you try to begin a conversation.

There are five basic things you must know about starting a conversation that will end up being interesting and fun. The following outline explains how and why they work. Try keeping these in mind the next time you chose to start a conversation.

1. Do not drill with questions.

The person you are talking with should not feel as if they are facing the firing squad. Do not keep firing questions at them without giving your own feedback and actually conversing.

Nothing is worse than feeling like you are getting the third degree. Asking too many questions quickly will only make the other person feel uncomfortable and leave them looking for a way out of the conversation before it has really begun.

2. Be funny.

This is not meaning you need to do a stand up routine, but just tell a funny story to break the ice. You’d be surprised how sharing something funny that happened to you will get others to open up. Everyone loves to laugh and laughing makes people feel comfortable. This is a sure fire way to lighten up tense and get people talking.

3. Ask open ended questions.

Open ended questions are questions that require more than a simple yes or no answer. Open ended questions allow people to elaborate and this creates conversation. You are drawing the person out and making them become part of a conversation.

Open ended questions bring growth to a conversation as opposed to questions with yes or no answers that stunt the growth of conversation. You can avoid awkward periods of silence that usually follow a yes or no questions as well.

4. Make the other person comfortable.

You can really get a person talking if they are happy to be talking to you. Let them initiate topics if you notice they seem uncomfortable. If you notice they seem distracted ask them if there is anything you can do to help. Maybe they really need to talk about something, but didn’t want to bring it up.

You can turn a total stranger into a friend by just making them feel as if you want to hear what they have to say and that you care about what they have say. Watch invading personal space also. Stand far enough to give them breathing room, but close enough to be able to clearly hear them.

5. Bring up a subject everyone can talk about.

The safest bet in starting a conversation is finding common ground. Pet peeves make for good conversation starters because everyone has them. You can start off by telling a story about one of your pet peeves and others are sure to join in.

These conversations tend to make everyone laugh and really enjoy the conversation. A feeling of camaraderie also forms and allows everyone to talk freely, making for great conversation.

These five tips can help anyone learn how to be a better conversation starter. You can use them all or just chose one or two you really like. Test them out to see how good each works for you. Knowing ahead of time what you want to say can also help ease your nerves about a situation.

Keeping these five conversation starter tips on your mind will definitely help you to be better at the art of communication.


Peter Murphy is a peak performance expert. He recently produced a very popular free report: 10 Simple Steps to Developing Communication Confidence. Apply now because it is available for a limited time only at: http://www.conversationtalk.com/report.htm

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Murphy

Monday, May 21, 2007

Dont Spray The Apes

Here is a nice article I found while browsing the net. It is in fact the nature of everything including humans to follow what their elders have done.



Start with a cage containing five apes.




In the cage, hang a banana on a string and put stairs under it. Before
long, an ape will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the
banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the apes with
cold water. After a while, another ape makes an attempt with the same
result - all the apes are sprayed with cold water. This continues
through several more attempts.




Pretty soon, when another ape tries to climb the stairs, the other apes
all try to prevent it. Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one ape
from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new ape sees the
banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his horror, all of the other
apes attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he
tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.




Next, remove another of the original five apes and replace it with a
new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous
newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Again, replace a
third original ape with a new one. The new one makes it to the stairs
and is attacked as well. Two of the four apes that beat him have no
idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs, or why they are
participating in the beating of the newest ape.




After replacing the fourth and fifth original apes, all the apes, which
have been sprayed with cold water, have been replaced. Nevertheless, no
ape ever again approaches the stairs. Why not? Because that's the way
they've always done it and that's the way it's always been around here.





And that's how policy begins!!!






Source: http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/SprayApes1999.htm





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