RETHINKING

The manager of a large office noticed a new man one day and told him to come into his office. “What’s your name?” he asked the new guy.

“John,” the new guy answered.

The manager scowled, “Look, I don’t know what kind of place you worked before, but I don’t call anyone by their first name. It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority. I refer to my employees by their last name only – Smith, Jones, Baker – that’s all. I am to be referred to only as Mr. Robertson. Do you understand?”

As the new man nodded, the manager continued, “Now that we got that straight, what is your last name?”

The new guy sighed, “Darling. My name is John Darling.”

“OK, John, the next thing I want to tell you is…”

Source |  Charles Hunter,  Healing Through Humor
(Creation House, 2003) ) page 156.

CONSIDER THIS

We make rules, and yet we also make exceptions to the rules.
Is it possible that rules only apply when they’re acceptable to us?

TEAMWORK

Some people were attending a seminar. The speaker, wanting to wake up the group into full consciousness, decided to start with a  group activity. He gave each participant a colourful balloon. He continued by asking everyone to take some time to blow up the balloon and to write their name on it using the few indelible marker pens scattered around. Then all the balloons were gathered in an adjacent room.

The participants, now in the adjacent room with the balloons, were challenged to find the balloon bearing their name within 5 minutes. Everyone was frantically searching for their name, colliding with each other and pushing around others. There was utter chaos.

At the end of the 5 minutes hardly anyone had found the balloon.

The speaker now asked the participants to randomly pick any balloon and give it to the the person whose name was written on it.

Within minutes everyone had their own balloon.

Source | As I recall it being told during a seminar I attended

CONSIDER THIS

God Speaks to us all a little differently, hoping we’ll tell each other. | John Stewart

THE JANITOR’S NAME

Once upon a time a rare kind of teacher gave his class a pop quiz. Amongst the many questions there was one – the very last one – nobody was expecting: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans your classroom?”

Many of the bright students thought this was some kind of joke. Many had seen the cleaning lady and even bumped into her several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s. When the time was up, all students handed their quiz with all but the last question answered. Nobody knew her name.  Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward the quiz grade.

“Absolutely,” said the professor. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say “hello”.

Source | Unknown

PONDER AND CONSIDER

Everybody is significant and everybody’s work is important. In the coming days try to make an effort to learn the names of some people you see often, whose name you still don’t know.