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We had a 'Team' Meeting this morning. I put the word 'Team' inside apostrophes because we only actually EXIST as a Team in the mind of the Senior Partner (I wonder if he likes to think of us as a team because it saves him having to learn our names!).
Today was one of our twice-yearly 'Development Retreats'. This is a two day junket at a really nice Country Hotel somewhere in the Midlands where we get PowerPointed at by the firms' Head of Corporate development. All the while, the Senior Partmer looks on from the sidelines with the air of a semi-malevolent Patrician. He doesn't actually take part in proceedings, but watches what he like to refer to as 'His charges' being put through their paces.
Now, if I seem ungrateful and negative, I apologise. The venue is superb, there are no clients in the room but there ARE free coffee and pastries - in my world it doesn't get much better than that!
The training itself is in something called Myers-Briggs Type Personality Indicators which is actually interesting, or rather Would be interesting if the firms Head of Corporate Development was NOT leading it. The poor man had a sense of humour bypass, presumably at birth, he is the kind of individual who could go to a cocktail party where the only guests were Chartered Accountanst and Actuaries and have the other guests saying "I don't know, he doesn't have much of a personality".
His presentation skills are, what is the PC-Training word for it? Ah yes, his presentation skills represent a developmental opportunity for him. He drones. He repeats himself. He repeats himself (sorry, it's catching) and he suffers from an affliction that High Masters of the Communication Arts (such as yours truly) refer to as 'Mixed Bullet-Point syndrome'. I knew about his other shortcomings (they are, after all, legendary in the firm), but this last case is new, or, that is to say, one that I have not noticed before today. Let me demonstrate Mixed Bullet-Point syndrome to you (so that you might get irritated by it too - no need to thank me).
There are three defining characteristics of Mixed Bullet Point Syndrome;
1) Lists are not sequentially numbered corectly
b) This makes them irritating such that the audience (if they have been imprisoned in a room with the writer for too long) starts to fantasize about killing the presenter, and
4) Attention is drawn away from what the slides say by the wondering of such imponderables as "What happened to number 3"?
It transpires that I am an ENTJ. Not yet had my full de-brief on what this means but they seem to be implying that I am gobby, opinionated, like to be in charge and think that I am constantly surrounded by idiots. Wow! It's good this system, I think I'll pay more attention this afternoon.
