| |
Basic InformationLatest NewsQuestions and AnswersBlog EntriesA Stress Survival Guide for HR ProfessionalsConflict at Work: From Problem to Productivity Using Dialectical Behavior Therapy SkillsHelping Employees with Mental Health Issues Get Back to WorkMaking a Work Plan Work for YouSecrecy at Work: A Growing PhenomenonEffective Listening in Small GroupsMental Health Software Project Management: Getting Started on the Right FootCan You Truly Be Yourself At Work?The World of Work - Have We Got It All Wrong?The Vortex of Violence: The Columbia Mall Shooting and BeyondAre Workplace Wellness Programs Worth It?Amazing Grief: When Resilient Magic Springs from the TragicBeware of Secondhand StressWhy Do We Dread Sunday: The Power of Anticipation?Work, Stress and HealthBuilding Stress Resilience and Organizational Hardiness Despite Doing "More with Less"The Visionary Emperor EncounterBe So SensitiveCareer Choices and OCD - The Right BalanceWant to Change Careers? You're Not AloneStressed at Work? You're Not AloneBooster Breaks at Work: Hit or Bust?Engaging and Energizing Audiences through Purposeful Play: An Interactive Exercises Model and MethodThe Final Five "N & N" Tools and Techniques for Saying "No" (and Meaning It) - Part IIITaking It Easy Can Actually Boost Your ProductivityThe Greatest Barrier and Passageway to Effective Communication at Work: “You”!Stress and Depression, Those Monday Mornings What I Learned about Engagement, Motivation, and Leadership from a 13-Month Old - Part IRescuing and Rejuvenating a Manager at the Bureaucratic Burnout BattlefrontAdding Insult to Injury: When a Type A-Driven Company Shuts Down Workplace Grief - Part ISeven Keys to Mastering the Message, the Medium, and the MeetingDesigning Effective, Efficient, and Emotionally Intelligent Phone/Web Conferencing: Part VIDesigning Effective, Efficient, and Emotionally Intelligent Phone/Web Conferencing: Part VDesigning Electronic Conferencing that's Effective, Efficient, and Emotionally Intelligent: Part IVHow to Relax When Faced With School and Work StressWhat are the Real Roots of Workplace Stress?Designing Electronic Conferencing that's Effective, Efficient, and Emotionally Intelligent: Part IIIDesigning Electronic Conferencing that's Effective, Efficient, and Emotionally Intelligent: Part IIDesigning Electronic Conferencing that's Effective, Efficient, and Emotionally IntelligentBurnout and (Vicarious) Trauma-Inducing Work Environments: Part IIISurviving the Conference Call Battlefield: Skills and Strategies for Successful Small Group Phone Conferencing - Part IISurviving the Conference Call Battlefield: A Contentious Case Vignette - Part IBridging the International Corporate Geo-Cultural Divide or Presenter Beware and Buyer Be AwareTo Retire or Not, A Complicated DecisionAre You an Engaged Workaholic?Understanding CriticismLoss, Ghosts, and the Stages of Grief: Part IIGrieving the Sudden Death of a Beloved Mentor, Manager, and “Man for All Seasons”Are You Ready for Productive Griefbusting in the Workplace?Productively Focusing Job Interview-Performance Anxiety: Transforming "Perfection" into Purpose, Patience and PossibilityDepression and Stress at WorkPursuing a Job, Self-effacement is Self SabotageShould I Change Careers During an Economic Recession?Managing a Work Life with DepressionWork and Family, are Boundaries Fading?To Succeed or Not to Succeed, That is The QuestionNo Slouching HereA Discussion of DisappointmentGossip: A Form of Workplace WarfareWork Place Climate, Depression and Job SearchingWhat Should I do Now? Recession and UnemploymentOne strategy you’ll want to know to be less stressed and more focused at work and life! Burnout, What It Is and What To Do About ItWhat Can You Do When You Have No Idea of What to Do?Sexual Harassment in the Work Place, An ongoing problemStress and Obesity, Do You Ask for Help? VideosLinksBook Reviews |
| |
by Robert M. Bramson Simon & Schuster Sound Ideas, 1986 Review by Michael Sakuma, Ph.D. on Nov 19th 2003
Some people spend thousands of dollars, and
years on therapy to help deal with the vicissitudes of life. Other people
spend twenty dollars or so and three hours listening to an audiotape that can
tell you how to "cope with all of the difficult people" that you
might encounter. The path that chosen is up to the individual based partly on
their values, lifestyles and free time. There is debate as to which is the more
efficient use of money.
That said, my curiosity was piqued when I picked
up this audiotape (CD actually, but that is beside the point) claiming to give "all
the tools necessary to put those difficult people in their place. This is just
what I've been looking for…imagine, me, being able to cope with others "problematic"
behavior once and for all… it sounds too good to be true. And whereas I haven't
spent thousands of dollars in therapy, I have spent years and years in graduate
school where they hinted, but did not explicitly tell me what I should be
doing. I figured that this might be the best twenty bucks I'll ever spend.
I listened to the CDs… some more than once, and
I was… lets say... disappointed. There is some good stuff here, but I
certainly don't feel prepared (from these lessons) to stand up for myself put
my boss or difficult coworker in their places. There are good, bad (and ugly)
things about the program. Allow me to quickly outline them.
The Good: The program describes several different "difficult"
styles that a person might encounter. Description and identification is often a
big part of solving a problem and the program breaks people into types for
identification. The names given to the types are a bit hokey (e.g. "snipers",
"sherman tanks", "clams") but they provide nice mnemonic
devices for easy remembering Some basics of effective communication are
discussed, and certainly the advice to "schedule an appointment" to
talk to the person is in line with my belief that one should never engage a
difficult person in the "heat of the moment." Distance is often good
so that cooler, more rational minds might prevail.
The Bad: The presentation of the problems and scripted
solutions leave something to be desired, both in structure/acting and in
content. The skits along with the music laced all throughout the program
reminds me of the skits that I used to watch on sesame street, or in school
during 5th grade. I think I would have been able to take the program
more seriously if it were presented differently (maybe).
The Ugly: When all is said and done I believe that this
product is marketed towards fast-food-mentalitied, corner cutting,
listening-on-the-train-to-work people who want a quick and easy way to deal
with possibly deep problems in communication or self-esteem. Whereas the cover
of the box promises results, there are no absolutes in this field when we deal
with the dynamics of human interaction and certainly no generic sure fixes to
interpersonal conflicts. It is my belief that are no short-cuts to well
developed social skills and without significant practice with another thinking,
feeling person, most of these lessons will go unheeded and forgotten. The
problem with programs like these is that they try to conceptualize a dynamic
interchange between two people as a static item to be memorized It is a little
like trying to learn Karate from a book. You might pick up some basics, but you
will be lost when someone comes at you from a different angle than the picture
shows.
I would be remiss if I didn't re-emphasize that
there is good stuff here. If this review sounds like I am being a "Sherman tank" it is
because I am reacting to the promises on the front of the box. It is my feeling
that a few sessions with a good therapist practicing effective communication
might be a better use of your time and money.
© 2003 Michael Sakuma
Michael Sakuma is
Chair of the Psychology Department at Dowling
College, Long Island, New York.
|