Drop The Pink Elephant
Drop The Pink Elephant
by Bill McFarlan
This is another book I found while I was travelling and bored. Sitting in the departure lounge of Prestwick Airport, Scotland to be exact. There is, quite literally, nothing to do in the airport. It’s small but pretty short on features and definitely short of entertainment. I walked past a book with a bright pink elephant on the cover. After reading the introduction on the inside cover I knew I’d love this book. I was right.
Drop The Pink Elephant is an examination of how we communicate with others. It looks at not just how we communicate with others but also, and more importantly, the words we use when doing this.
Now that probably sounds quite boring? Fortunately not. Bill McFarlans writing style and examples make what is normally a difficult subject incredibly easy to grasp. He uses a lot of humour and personal examples to highlight the types of mistakes we all make on a daily basis when communicating with others. The section on Bullshit Bingo used at management meetings made me laugh out loud when I read it on the flight that evening.
Do you need to read this book? Well let me ask you a more important question - Do you communicate with other people? If so would you like to do this more effectively than ever before? You do? Then you need to read this book.
As a sidenote anybody working in the customer service or contact centre industry needs to make this required reading for all staff. It’s that good.