The Mobile Phone Story (assumptions, authority, control, the risks of modern communications and technology, privacy, security, identity theft, etc) Several men were in a golf club locker room. A mobile phone rings. "Yes I can talk," says the man answering the call, "You're shopping are you? That's nice." The listening men smile to each other. "You want to order those new carpets? Okay.. And they'll include the curtains for an extra five thousand?.. Sure, why not?" More smiles among the listeners. "You want to book that week on Necker Island?.. They're holding the price at twenty-two thousand?.. Sounds a bargain.. You want a fortnight?.. If that's what you want honey, okay by me." Smiles turn to expressions of mild envy. "And you want to give the builder the go-ahead for the new conservatory? Seventy-five thousand if we say yes today? Sounds fair.. sure, that's fine." The listeners exchange glances of amazement. "Okay sugar, see you later.. Yes, love you too," says the man, ending the call. He looks at the other men and says, "Whose phone is this anyhow?.."

The Very Old Lady Story (positive attitude, self-image, ageism) A very old lady looked in the mirror one morning. She had three remaining hairs on her head, and being a positive soul, she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today." So she braided her three hairs, and she had a great day. Some days later, looking in the mirror one morning, preparing for her day, she saw that she had only two hairs remaining. "Hmm, two hairs... I fancy a centre parting today." She duly parted her two hairs, and as ever, she had a great day. A week or so later, she saw that she had just one hair left on her head. "One hair huh...," she mused, "I know, a pony-tail will be perfect." And again she had a great day. The next morning she looked in the mirror. She was completely bald. "Finally bald huh," she said to herself, "How wonderful! I won't have to waste time doing my hair any more.."

The Train Travellers Story (relationships, assumptions, etc) A wealthy businessman who is used to getting his own way finds himself sharing a sleeper compartment with a beautiful young woman as they travel to Brussells on the train. It is winter and the heating is not working so the compartment is cold. The two settle down to sleep. "Two strangers, on a train..." says the businessman. "Yes," says the woman. "A man and a woman - away from home - probably never meet again.." Says the businessman. "Yes," says the woman. "It's cold, isn't it?" says the businessman. "Yes," says the woman. "Could you pass me another blanket?" says the businessman, "... Or maybe we could pretend to be man and wife for tonight?.." "Yes, that would be good," says the woman, "Get your own bloody blanket."

The Biscuit Factory Story (making assumptions, other people's perspectives, individual needs and motivations) This is a true story. Some years ago the following exchange was broadcast on an Open University sociology TV programme. An interviewer was talking to a female production-line worker in a biscuit factory. The dialogue went like this: Interviewer: How long have you worked here? Production Lady: Since I left school (probably about 15 years). Interviewer: What do you do? Production Lady: I take packets of biscuits off the conveyor belt and put them into cardboard boxes. Interviewer: Have you always done the same job? Production Lady: Yes. Interviewer: Do you enjoy it? Production Lady: Oooh Yes, it's great, everyone is so nice and friendly, we have a good laugh. Interviewer (with a hint of disbelief): Really? Don't you find it a bit boring? Production Lady: Oh no, sometimes they change the biscuits...

A Short Story About Eggs (time management, creative thinking and problem-solving) A young woman was in her kitchen. A pan of water was simmering on the stove. She was making boiled eggs for breakfast. He walked in. Their eyes met. "Make love to me here, now," she said. They made love on the kitchen table. "Couldn't resist me, huh?" he said. "The egg timer is broken," she replied.

The Translator Story (communications, assumptions, creativity, deceit, language, relationships, just deserts) The story goes that a prominent, married, philandering, wealthy politician took advantage of a young female Italian translator during an overseas visit. Shortly after his return home he received a phone call at his office from the woman informing him that she was pregnant and that he was definitely the father. Seemingly experienced at dealing with such situations, the politician instructed the young woman, "I will arrange for you and the child to be provided for. Do not worry about money. I will pay ten times the typical Italian settlement, but this must be kept secret." "I see," said the young woman, a little taken aback, but since she knew the man and his reputation she was not unduly surprised, and was also entirely happy never to see or speak to him again. He went on, "Don't ever call me again. Send me a postcard with some sort of coded message confirming date of birth, that the child is healthy and whether a boy or girl. Use your imagination - you are a translator after all." "As you wish," said the young woman, and ended the call. A little under nine months later the politician's wife (who was also his PA) was opening his mail. When she came to a particular postcard the politician noticed and suddenly became attentive. "Here's a postcard..." said his wife. "Oh yes," said the politician, "What does it say?" "Just a silly joke I think," said his wife, continuing, as she watched the colour drain from her husband's face, "It says: 'March 12th - Just had three big beautiful bowls of spaghetti - all with meatballs..' "

Lipstick Kisses On The Mirror Story (creative thinking, creative problem-solving, creative management techniques, avoiding confrontation) A school head was alerted by the caretaker to a persistent problem in the girls lavatories: some of the girl students were leaving lipstick kisses on the mirrors. The caretaker had left notices on the toilet walls asking for the practice to cease, but to no avail; every evening the caretaker would wipe away the kisses, and the next day lots more kisses would be planted on the mirror. It had become a bit of a game. The head teacher usually took a creative approach to problem solving, and so the next day she asked a few girl representatives from each class to meet with her in the lavatory. "Thank you for coming," said the head, "You will see there are several lipstick kisses in the mirrors in this washroom.." Some of the girls grinned at each other. "As you will understand, modern lipstick is cleverly designed to stay on the lips, and so the lipstick is not easy at all to clean from the mirrors. We have therefore had to develop a special cleaning regime, and my hope is that when you see the effort involved you will help spread the word that we'd all be better off if those responsible for the kisses use tissue paper instead of the mirrors in future.." At this point the caretaker stepped forward with a sponge squeegee, which he took into one of the toilet cubicles, dipped into the toilet bowl, and then used to clean one of the lipstick-covered mirrors. The caretaker smiled. The girls departed. And there were no more lipstick kisses on the mirrors.

The Blind Golfers Story (an ironic example of lack of empathy, and different people's perspectives) A clergyman, a doctor and a business consultant were playing golf together one day and were waiting for a particularly slow group ahead. The business consultant exclaimed, "What's with these people? We've been waiting over half and hour! It's a complete disgrace." The doctor agreed, "They're hopeless, I've never seen such a rabble on a golf course." The clergyman spotted the approaching greenkeeper and asked him what was going on, "What's happening with that group ahead of us? They're surely too slow and useless to be playing, aren't they?" The greenkeeper replied, "Oh, yes, that's a group of blind fire-fighters. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime." The three golfers fell silent for a moment. The clergyman said, "Oh dear, that's so sad. I shall say some special prayers for them tonight." The doctor added, rather meekly, "That's a good thought. I'll get in touch with an ophthalmic surgeon friend of mine to see if there's anything that can be done for them." After pondering the situation for a few seconds, the business consultant turned to the greenkeeper and asked, "Why can't they play at night?"

The Stranger And The Gingernuts Story (making assumptions, think before you act, different perspectives) At the airport after a tiring business trip a lady's return flight was delayed. She went to the airport shop, bought a book, a coffee and a small packet containing five gingernut biscuits. The airport was crowded and she found a seat in the lounge, next to a stranger. After a few minutes' reading she became absorbed in her book. She took a biscuit from the packet and began to drink her coffee. To her great surprise, the stranger in the next seat calmly took one of the biscuits and ate it. Stunned, she couldn't bring herself to say anything, nor even to look at the stranger. Nervously she continued reading. After a few minutes she slowly picked up and ate the third biscuit. Incredibly, the stranger took the fourth gingernut and ate it, then to the woman's amazement, he picked up the packet and offered her the last biscuit. This being too much to tolerate, the lady angrily picked up her belongings, gave the stranger an indignant scowl and marched off to the boarding gate, where her flight was now ready. Flustered and enraged, she reached inside her bag for her boarding ticket, and found her unopened packet of gingernuts...

The Bedtime Story (communications, men and women, communications methods, relationships) 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.'

The Clap And Cheer Story (positive attitude, taking pride in whatever you do) A small boy was auditioning with his classmates for a school play. His mother knew that he'd set his heart on being in the play - just like all the other children hoped too - and she feared how he would react if he was not chosen. On the day the parts were awarded, the little boy's mother went to the school gates to collect her son. The little lad rushed up to her, eyes shining with pride and excitement. "Guess what Mum," he shouted, and then said the words that provide a lesson to us all, "I've been chosen to clap and cheer."

The Bank Story (a lesson in customer service, how bad policy encourages poor service) I am assured this is a true story from a UK bank. The bank concerned had introduced a charge to be levied when people paid in money to be credited to an account held by a different bank. The charge was 50p and had been in force for about 6 months or so. A well to do, upper-class lady enters the bank and presents the cashier a cheque (check) which she asks to be paid into an account held by a different bank. The cashier duly tells the lady that there will be a charge of 50p. Indignantly, she tells him, "I wasn't charged the last time." To which the cashier immediately replies, "Well that will be a pound then..."

The Fish Baking Story (to challenge belief systems and assumptions, and illustrate pointless routine and the need for questioning) A little girl was watching her mother prepare a fish for dinner. Her mother cut the head and tail off the fish and then placed it into a baking pan. The little girl asked her mother why she cut the head and tail off the fish. Her mother thought for a while and then said, "I've always done it that way - that's how babicka (Czech for grandma) did it." Not satisfied with the answer, the little girl went to visit her grandma to find out why she cut the head and tail off the fish before baking it. Grandma thought for a while and replied, "I don't know. My mother always did it that way." So the little girl and the grandma went to visit great grandma to find ask if she knew the answer. Great grandma thought for a while and said, “Because my baking pan was too small to fit in the whole fish”.

The Donkey Story (positive attitudes, turning problems into opportunities) 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.

The Shepherd Story (IT consultants, business consultancy, knowing your facts - ironic example) A shepherd was tending his flock in a field, when a new sports car screeched to a stop on the road nearby in a cloud of dust. The driver, a young man in expensive designer clothes and sunglasses, leans out of the window and shouts over to the shepherd, "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have here, can I take one?" The shepherd looks up slowly up at the young man, then looks at his peaceful flock, and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?" The young man steps out of his car holding a state-of-the-art palmtop pda, with which he proceeds to connects to a series of websites, first calling up satellite navigation system to pinpoint his location, then keying in the location to generate an ultra-high resolution picture of the field. After emailing the photo to an image processing facility, the processed data is returned, which he then feeds into an online database, and enters the parameters for a report. Within another few seconds a miniature printer in the car produces a full colour report containing several pages of analysis and results. The young man studies the data for a few more seconds and returns to the shepherd. "You have exactly one-thousand five-hundred and eighty-six sheep, including three rams, and seven-hundred and twenty-two lambs." "That's right," says the shepherd, mildly impressed. "Well, I guess that means you get to take one of my sheep." The young man makes his choice and loads the animal onto the back seat of his car, at which the shepherd says, almost as an afterthought, "Hey there, if I can tell you what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?" The young man, feeling confident, agrees. "You're a consultant," says the shepherd. "Wow, that's right," says the young man, taken aback, "How did you guess that?" "No guessing required," answers the shepherd, "You showed up here even though nobody called you. You took a fee for giving me an answer that already know, to a question I never asked, and you know nothing about my business. Now give me back my dog."