A drawing I did for my 11 year old son Max. Never too young to learn. Never too old for that matter.
Never too late to relate
8 Oct
A keys to effective communications is relating to people. Walking a mile in their (well you know what I’m trying to say.) This isn’t always easy. Not everyone is open, honest, friendly and fascinating. There are barriers:
Who cares?
What’s in it for me?
I can’t spare the time
I’m uncomfortable with some people
I’m nervous so I’m thinking of what to say while your talking
A lot of this behaviour is habitual and deeply ingrained in our personalities, but we can unlearn.
I like people and find life interesting. When I meet people I try to relate to them. It’s a technique I use which is very much like looking for keywords in long documents. I listen to what people say and scan. I will then link my experience to theirs adding a dash of humour and friendliness.
We are all related in some way even if it’s just that we are human.
If we start out by thinking the best of people, we will be more open to communicating and relating to them.
Bill
31 Jul
My first blog post is dedicated to my father, Bill Rodie – a feature writer and all round Sydney newspaperman, later to become one of the city’s 1st PR consultants. Originally from New Zealand, Bill worked for a number of newspapers including Smith’s Weekly, and was great friends with poet Kenneth Slessor.
To quote George Blaikies’ book, Remember Smith’s Weekly, “Rodie, before coming to Smith’s, had been a romantic adventurer from New Zealand, who had wandered the South Seas with Errol Flynn, pursuing a try anything once policy. Four white dots under his right eye showed where the prongs of a fork had hit bone when the wielder had intended to drive them through his eye. In the depths of the depression he took a job as a footman in Government House, Sydney, and on leaving, wrote a cheerful series of articles about hard times in the palace.”
At a time when culinary advice came from the Country Women’s Association and a roast leg of lamb was about the best you could expect in many households (still is really…) Bill was a gourmet who loved to cook and a wine connoisseur before it was fashionable.
Ted Moloney’s “Oh For a French Wife” cookbook came out in the late 1950’s – long before our own blockbuster reality cooking shows. My mother and father spent their honeymoon with Maurice OShea, creator and founder of McWilliam’s Mount Pleasant, Lovedale.
I didn’t meet Bill. Well I did but I was a baby. Wish i had. I think we may have been alike in some ways. This blog is dedicated to you dad! And to my son Max, my other role model.