NLP At Work : The Difference That Makes the Difference in Business

All environments tell a story

puzzled look, he suggested I follow the car in front of me. The

road went through an expanse of wasteland, which I assumed

had once supported the manufacturing plants. I arrived at a

building at the far side of the site. It had a new façade on the

existing building behind it. I entered the reception, which

resembled a doctor’s waiting room of old with a sliding glass

screen between me and what I assume was the reception office.

This latter company had been devolved from its parent

company and was faced with the challenge of changing its

outdated practices and finding a competitive new way of

working that would help it build its business into the future. It

was seeking to attract new clients, new business partners, and

new suppliers.

And what about the following description of the

headquarters of Yahoo!, a web portal?

In the front foyer, a visitor is greeted by a life-size papier mâché

Elvis and trapezoidal sofas and chairs in the official corporate

colors, purple and yellow. The curiosities that lie beyond include

conference rooms named after the biblical plagues (Blood, Hail,

Frogs, Locusts, Boils, etc.) marathon table-hockey games in the

lunchroom, and a possible glimpse of the company’s cofounder,

David Filo, in distress jeans and T-shirt, and barefoot.

The founders of Yahoo! are renowned for doing what they

really want irrespective of other demands on them. They have

resisted some of the marketplace’s aggressive tactics, for

example they have a policy of only placing one banner

advertisement per page and not using popup ads that have to

be clicked away before you can access the page you want.

Our environment is an expression of who we are. At this

very moment I sit overlooking a valley in the Dordogne in

France. All the windows and doors are wide open and nothing

impedes the view of the landscape of which we are a part. I

have space and quiet in my surroundings.

All environments tell a story. Our surroundings are an

expression of decisions we make, compromises we have

agreed to, goals we have achieved, desires and obligations.

Look around you now. What does your environment say about

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