Assume or Ass-U-Me

I work for a company where there are on-going trainings and classroom sessions for self development. There was one such session a month back, when an expat-marketing manager from the U.S. was handling a short session on team building and leadership skills.

The facilitator, she was a lively personality craking a lot of jokes and keeping the audience on their toes for more than two hours, but never deviating from the agenda on her cards. After a few lectures and experience sharing sessions, we had a quick game of jig-saw puzzle. I was kind of "puzzled" about the need of a jig-saw puzzle game in such a training session. The way she carried herself during the course of that session, made me sit back and see what message she is about to convey from it. We moved on, with a few rules, making them, then breaking them, shuffling roles, running around the training room, taking different directions, working with new people, shouting at each other; all for the sole purpose of some learning and at the end of it. I was still puzzled about the outcome of the session.

She took over again, and here are the learnings for the day:

• Change is pervasive and you have to live with it


• Don't always take what you are given, ask for more


• Be a look for person


• Be proactive


• Never let your team down


• Over communicate about what you are doing; you never know when your supervisor or subordinate will understand completely


• Under promise; over deliver

But the best of all the things I learnt that day was:

DO NOT ASSUME; because, it makes an ASS out of U and ME, and that's ASSUME for me from that day onwards.

KILLER BLOW!!!