Do you feel part of the world around you? Do you feel that you are a human being like everybody else? Or do you feel isolated, separate? There are certainly times when I feel very much on my own, that no-one understands me. But then, eventually, it will dawn on me that I’m probably just as guilty of not understanding . . . and that I could, actually, make a bit more of an effort to understand.
This means that, as a service provider, be it as a teacher, the designer of a smart-phone App or as a baker of bread, we need to ensure that the product or service we offer will satisfy our customers’ needs. This is QA: Quality Assurance.
That powerful 1999 film East is East was shown on UK TV the other day: I’ve just watched it. Stunned. Timely. Timely because I’m in the throes of developing my approach to Emotional Intelligence (EI) and this painful story of deep cultural clashes highlights many of the issues prevalent in describing and improving our EI: our ability (or not) to relate to others at a deep and meaningful level.
“Be Alert . .. Britain needs lerts!” I was reminded of this the other day whilst seeking the advice of my local computer shop: faced with a new PC I was re-installing all my favourite programs and, in downloading the Firefox browser had inadvertently also downloaded some ad-ware: persistent pop-up ads.
When life throws all sorts of traumas and challenges at you (which it seems to have been doing a lot over the last few years), do you often think, as I do, that “I know nothing” . . . or struggle to make sense of, well, anything and everything?