Conflict Resolution
There was once an Englishman and a Scotsman who lived next door to each other. The Englishman owned a hen and each morning would look in his garden and pick up one of his hens eggs for breakfast.
One day he looked into his garden and saw that the hen had laid an egg in the Scotsman’s garden. He was about to go next door when he saw the Scotsman pick up the egg. The Englishman ran up to the Scotsman and told him that the egg belonged to him because he owned the hen. The Scotsman disagreed because the egg was laid on his property.
They argued for a while until finally the Englishman said “In my family we normally solve disputes by the following message: I punch you and we time how long it takes you to get back up, then you punch me and we time how long it takes for me to get up. Whomever gets up quicker, wins the egg.”
The Scotsman agreed to this and so the English hit the Scotsman as hard as he could. The Scotsman fell to the floor and only woke up in agony after 30 minutes.
Eventually the Scotsman stood up and said “Now it’s my turn to hit you.”
The Englishman replied: “Keep the egg.”
Adapted from http://funny-hot.blogspot.co.za/2007/11/conflict-resolution.html
You will perhaps have heard this very old story illustrating the difference between positive thinking and negative thinking:
Many years ago two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential.
The first salesman reported back, “There is no potential here – nobody wears shoes.”
The second salesman reported back, “There is massive potential here – nobody wears shoes.”
This simple short story provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two quite different ways – negatively or positively.
We could explain this also in terms of seeing a situation’s problems and disadvantages, instead of its opportunities and benefits.
When telling this story its impact is increased by using exactly the same form of words (e.g., “nobody wears shoes”) in each salesman’s report. This emphasises that two quite different interpretations are made of a single situation.
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#philosophy-student-chair-story
This story is adapted from a scenario which featured in a widely circulated email, in which (supposedly) job applicants were given loosely the following question to answer, to indicate their personality and decision-making motives (supposedly). The job application context is extremely doubtful, but the lesson in creative thinking is interesting, especially if people are not given too long to dwell on it:
You are driving alone in two-seater car on a deserted road in blizzard conditions, when you see another car which has recently run off the road and into a tree. There are three people in the stranded car, none of whom is injured:
- an old friend, who once saved your life
- your childhood sweetheart greatest lost love
- an elderly lady
No-one has a phone. The likelihood of any more passing traffic is effectively zero. The conditions are too dangerous for people to walk anywhere. It is not possible to tow the crashed car. The nearest town is an hour’s drive away.
The question is: Given that your car is just a two-seater, in what order should the stranded people be taken to the nearest town?
There is no right or wrong answer to this, but the most creatively balanced solution is arguably: Ask your old friend to drive the old lady to the town and raise the alarm, while you and your lost love keep each other warm and wait for help to arrive.
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#philosophy-student-chair-story
A man goes to the doctor and says “Doctor, I’ve become a compulsive thief.”
The doctor prescribes him a course of tablets and says, “If you’re not cured in a couple of weeks would you get me a widescreen television?”
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#philosophy-student-chair-story
An old lady had a hearing-aid fitted, hidden underneath her hair.
A week later she returned to the doctor for her check-up.
“It’s wonderful – I can hear everything now,” she reported very happily to the doctor.
“And is your family pleased too?” asked the doctor.
“Oh I haven’t told them yet,” said the old lady, “And I’ve changed my will twice already..”
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#philosophy-student-chair-story
A man and his wife had been arguing all night, and as bedtime approached neither was speaking to the other. It was not unusual for the pair to continue this war of silence for two or three days, however, on this occasion the man was concerned; he needed to be awake at 4:30am the next morning to catch an important flight, and being a very heavy sleeper he normally relied on his wife to wake him. Cleverly, so he thought, while his wife was in the bathroom, he wrote on a piece of paper: ‘Please wake me at 4:30am – I have an important flight to catch’. He put the note on his wife’s pillow, then turned over and went to sleep.
The man awoke the next morning and looked at the clock. It was 8:00am. Enraged that he’d missed his flight, he was about to go in search of his errant wife to give her a piece of his mind, when he spotted a hand-written note on his bedside cabinet.
The note said: ‘It’s 4:30am – get up.’
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#philosophy-student-chair-story
One day a farmer’s donkey fell into a well. The farmer frantically thought what to do as the stricken animal cried out to be rescued. With no obvious solution, the farmer regretfully concluded that as the donkey was old, and as the well needed to be filled in anyway, he should give up the idea of rescuing the beast, and simply fill in the well. Hopefully the poor animal would not suffer too much, he tried to persuade himself.
The farmer asked his neighbours help, and before long they all began to shovel earth quickly into the well. When the donkey realised what was happening he wailed and struggled, but then, to everyone’s relief, the noise stopped.
After a while the farmer looked down into the well and was astonished by what he saw. The donkey was still alive, and progressing towards the top of the well. The donkey had discovered that by shaking off the dirt instead of letting it cover him, he could keep stepping on top of the earth as the level rose. Soon the donkey was able to step up over the edge of the well, and he happily trotted off.
Life tends to shovel dirt on top of each of us from time to time. The trick is to shake it off and take a step up.
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#philosophy-student-chair-story
A lady takes her pet chihuahua with her on a safari holiday. Wandering too far one day the chihuahua gets lost in the bush, and soon encounters a very hungry looking leopard. The chihuahua realises he’s in trouble, but, noticing some fresh bones on the ground, he settles down to chew on them, with his back to the big cat. As the leopard is about to leap, the chihuahua smacks his lips and exclaims loudly, “Boy, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here.”
The leopard stops mid-stride, and slinks away into the trees.
“Phew,” says the leopard, “that was close – that evil little dog nearly had me.”
A monkey nearby sees everything and thinks he’ll win a favour by putting the stupid leopard straight. The chihuahua sees the monkey go after the leopard, and guesses he might be up to no good.
When the leopard hears the monkey’s story he feels angry at being made a fool, and offers the monkey a ride back to see him exact his revenge.
The little dog sees them approaching and fears the worse.
Thinking quickly, the little dog turns his back, pretends not to notice them, and when the pair are within earshot says aloud, “Now where’s that monkey got to? I sent him ages ago to bring me another leopard…”
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#philosophy-student-chair-story
One day a small rat surfaced from his nest to find himself between the paws of a huge sleeping lion, which immediately awoke and seized the rat. The rat pleaded with the fierce beast to be set free, and the lion, being very noble and wise, and in no need of such small prey, agreed to let the relieved rat go on his way.
Some days later in the same part of the forest, a hunter had laid a trap for the lion, and it duly caught him, so that the lion was trussed up in a strong net, helpless, with nothing to do than wait for the hunter to return.
But it was the rat who came along next, and seeing the lion in need of help, promptly set about biting and gnawing through the net, which soon began to unravel, setting the great lion free.
The moral of the story is of course to make the world your debtor – even the humblest of folk may one day be of use.
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#philosophy-student-chair-story
The Hawthorne Effect: the proposition that workers are more motivated more by emotional than economic factors (i.e., by being involved and feeling important, rather than by an improvement in workplace conditions).
So called after workplace behavioural research by Elton Mayo at the Western Electric Company’s Hawthorne plant in Cicero, Chicago, 1927-32, which ran on without Mayo until 1937. Mayo was a founding father of industrial psychology, attached to Harvard University as professor of industrial research from 1926, laying the foundations for later gurus, notably Herzberg(Motivation and Hygiene Factors), Maslow (Hierarchy of Needs), McGregor (XY Theory), Peters and Waterman (‘In Search of Excellence’ etc).
At a peak, 20,000 Western Electric employees were subject to research by a team of Harvard scientists and up to 100 investigators. This massive ten year programme grew from the initial experiment in which improved lighting was installed to assess the effect on workers’ motivation and productivity. Sure enough, productivity increased, but productivity also increased in the ‘control group’ of workers where conditions were unchanged, except that they were informed they were part of the study. This was perhaps the earliest significant demonstration that people are not actually motivated by improving their workplace conditions (‘Taylorism’ – after FW Taylor – had been the common view, in which money and conditions were thought to be the prime motivators). The Hawthorne Effect, and the experiments at the Hawthorne plant, proved that people are mainly motivated not by economic factors, but emotional factors, such as feeling involved and receiving attention.
Source: http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm#philosophy-student-chair-story