RRC Archives

There was a study released a couple years ago on the psychology of sales. Researchers found that better car salesman tended to mirror the gestures, body position, and accent of the person they were trying to sell to. The reasoning they gave is that we are more trusting of people who are the same as us. The very best salesman weren't even aware of it until they saw themselves on tape. Wanna bet your facilitator knew of that study.

Just as long as you don't start hanging out in the airports, you should be OK!

You should have your team building seminars at a climbing gym!

Yeah that way you can drop the people you don't like! "Oh! Did you say 'take'?? I heard 'slack'!"

I do teambuilding for a living... but not like this.
This is not teambuilding, this is corporate machine making. I HATE that they call it teambuilding. A team is where everyone hopefully respects the individuals within the group... not tries to cut and paste. I can't believe you were the only one not taken in by it... that's just sad.

As a professional, I hate this more than just about anybody.
I'm glad you didn't get sucked in.

Just as all the talk in the world isn't going to get a big beam off a truck and up to the ridge where it needs to be, manipulation and coercion aren't going to build a real team. That doesn't stop some from trying though. If you want your people to follow you, they have to believe that you are looking out for their interests. You might fool them for a while, but in the long run the only way to keep them loyal is to figure out what they need and want, and how to trade that for what you need from them without going broke. You have to care and they know whether you do or don't.

If you try to fake it, then the best will leave, and the rest will feed you your own BS right back at you. It's a Darwinian process, and the failure of some just makes success easier for others. Still, politics in the workplace is a reality, so if I were in your shoes, I'd be keeping my mouth shut, polishing up my resume and looking to make a move. I had a hard time seeing it when I was younger, but simply opening my trap and pointing out character flaws still falls under the heading of all talk. Vote with your feet, making a "statement" of real substance, and in doing so, keep the number of open enemies to a minimum. You'll make plenty of those in any event. It's almost funny, but by simply leaving, their own capacity to lie to themselves ends up working in your favor, as they will work very hard to convince themselves that your leaving wasn't indicative of a problem on their end, and therefore you weren't trying to hurt them and do not deserve retribution. To me the best way to square accounts with jerks is to take their money and move on. If I have the cash, and they think they "won", so much the better. Just make sure your assessemnt of who's a jerk and who really understands what fair trade really means is accurate.

Y O U M U S T B E A S S I M I L A T E D .

the glass is both half full and half empty and there is no glass at all.

You know what teamwork is? Teamwork is when a whole bunch of people do shit MY WAY! That's what teamwork is to me!