Monday, January 14, 2008

Back to reality

2007 has brought many surprises, but not as many as 2008 has brought in a short while. Coming back from a cruise with 74 people in our group is all about communication.

What has it taught me? You can't just bring whoever you want on a cruise. There's a saying, "You haven't lived till you've cruised." I can concur with this statement to a certain degree. However, quoting my uncle who cruises quarterly, might not be the best idea.

Communication. Who is doing what, when, how, until what time? It was absolute communication mayhem. Lots to do, little to say. No matter how many times you think you have it down right, someone will always be left behind, be late for dinner, go for a smoke break on the wrong deck, when you were told exactly where to go.

My FTYG, tired. I think I need a vacation from that cruise. You want to make sure you get all you can in. If it means sacrificing some sleep, then it means sleeping two hours a day.

The struggle to keep harmony between family is probably one of the best examples I can come up with when it comes too communication. The five conflict behaviours identified by Thomas (1976). I don't remember his first name, but it's something I picked up from OB.

You have:

The Compromiser - who is willing to sacrifice doing a wine tasting to sleep an extra half hour.

The Accommodator - who doesn't care what they do, even it they don't want to do it, just for the sake of a) doing something b) not wanting get into the middle of things and c) maybe just didn't care

The Competitor - who will by any means get everyone to do what they want to do, or else...Which usually means, the accommodator is not far behind.

The Avoider - who will try to avoid miscommunication and conflict by not recognizing it until it has imploded to a point of no return. Which usually means the compromiser is not far behind trying to explain why such things have happened.

The best would have to be the Collaborator - who I would like to say is myself, but would be talking total rubbish if I did. They try to amalgamate all the ideas that each of the other four have and make this one great outing that everyone would be happy doing. Which usually ends up being drinking at SkyWalker's on deck 18.

Communicating a message to each one of these people has to be done in a certain way, so one message that I thought would be universally easy, ended up having to be said five different ways.
All to accommodate the audience.

Not to hard to figure out which one I am.