Posts by Pat:
It’s all about you…
I saw a story online about Delta Air Lines and effective communication.
This last month, Delta sent an email from its CEO, Ed Bastian, to millions of its most loyal passengers. It was an effective email and one of its secrets was the way it repeated a singe word, over and over.
In the course of the 740-word message the second person pronoun and the second person possessive pronoun (“you” and “your” were repeated over and over, for a total of 44 times:
- “We know you expect more…”
- “…assure you that these challenges are temporary…”
- “The Delta team is here to serve you…”
- “...you deserve to get to your destination at the time that best suits your travel plans…”
- “…save you time and give you more control over your trip…”
Yes, we all know that “you” is an extremely common word, but the repetition not only keeps the message focused on the customer’s perspective( rather than the airlines challenges or its employees’ efforts), but also offers a subtle, rhetorical reassurance that “this isn’t about us. It’s about you.”
So why do I find this significant? Because your co-workers, clients, friends, family need you to show them that they are your main concern and how what you have to say/do will affect them.
We sometimes struggle with the feeling that we are the center of the universe, but it is wise to remember that most everyone thinks they are the center of the universe!
Two things we could do when we meet someone are:
- We can imagine we are Sherlock Holmes. Everyone is the most interesting person in the world. Our job is to figure out why.
- Every person is an expert in something we are not. Learn from them.
Why?
Because everyone is a gift in our lives. Each is worthy of our attention, our respect, our appreciation.
Let’s give what we want to receive. After all, we are all connected and interdependent.
(we just may have forgotten!)
My new word is…
…contronym! It’s a new word to me, even though I was an English teacher in a previous life! A contronym is a word that can be its own opposite! In German, contronyms are called Janus words, named after the two-faced God of duality, Janus, in Roman mythology. So…you know synonyms are words that share the […]
What a difference a word makes!
What we say has power to affect others and our experiences with them. And the words we choose to describe ourselves and our situations determines much of our experience! Are we… rich or temporarily blessed, lonely or enjoying solitude, or struggling or growing through resistance? We know that… well-educated isn’t the same as smart, talents […]
You don’t have time?
We will NEVER have “enough” time. Because we can’t “have” time. Time is not something that can be had by us humans. Time isn’t even real! It’s just something we humans created to make our lives more convenient. Time is like a handful of sand…the harder we try to grip it, the more it slips […]
Faith is trust?
“Faith” is trusting the process. We know that SOMETHING is making our heart beat right now, our lungs function, the grass grow, and the planets spin. So whether we admit it or not, what we have is FAITH. We have faith that our heart will keep beating and that we’ll wake up tomorrow morning. We […]
Vacation complaints…
Vacations are a national tradition (as is this perennial childhood complaint!) This post is of actual complaints received by “Thomas Cook Vacations” from dissatisfied customers. I think you’ll be as amazed as I was by them! “We booked an excursion to a water park but no one told us we had to bring our own […]
The “gift” of our breath
The phrase “take a deep breath” is misleading. The breath isn’t something we can just “take.” Breathing is a gift, a miracle, offered to us over and over again. Yet much like our health, we often take it for granted right up until the moment we no longer have it. “Remember to breathe” means remembering […]
July 4 humor!
Bringing you some humor for this special day of days. (And if it seems like it came from one who used to be a teacher, well, you’re right!) Father William, the old priest, made it a practice to visit the parish school one day a week. He walked into the 4th grade class, where the […]
The tide does come in!
No matter how bad our current situation appears to be now, nature guarantees a turn for the better. Change is always happening. Nature’s cycles are dependable. We can’t rush a seedling; pulling on it to make it grow faster will cause it to die. We can’t rush a baby; whevever possible, we have to let […]
A child’s story…
A little girl in second grade underwent chemotherapy for leukemia. When she returned to school, she wore a scarf to hide the fact that she had lost all her hair. But some of the children pulled it off, and in their nervousness laughed and made fun of her. The little girl was mortified and that […]