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A long, long time ago, before Monaghan’s 4th largest workwear store was the 4th largest workwear store in Monaghan, before there were smart phones, before there was Netflix, before middle aged men wore lycra, before…..OK it was 2010…or maybe it was 2011….anyway I attended a business coaching morning in Armagh......
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The Beach Ball

 
A long, long time ago, before Monaghan’s 4th largest workwear store was the 4th largest workwear store in Monaghan, before there were smart phones, before there was Netflix, before middle aged men wore lycra, before…..OK it was 2010…or maybe it was 2011….anyway I attended a business coaching morning in Armagh.

The chap giving the talk was quite good and made some helpful points that I remember and use to this day, preeminent among them being never to get involved in a business coaching event in Armagh.

The coach was engaging and held our attention up until he introduced a beach ball into the group in order to illustrate  his ‘Beach Ball Perspective’….


 
The ‘beach ball principle’ is simply a ham-fisted attempt to get us to understand that several people looking at the same thing can all see something different. This is fine as a principle. The ‘coach’ usually places the beach ball between two people and asks them what colour it is. The ‘coach’s’ contention is that one of us will say blue, because that is the panel we see, but the other person will say ‘red’ because that’s what he see’s. The coach will them miraculously turn the beach ball around and we will marvel at the fact that we were both right and wrong at the same time. To which , you , like I did that day, think “We will in our bollix !”.

Why ?

Because we’ve both seen a frickin’ beach ball before and know it’s made of different colour panels.
On that particular day the ‘coach’ picked me and another poor soul to sit opposite each other , close our eyes and then he revealed the beach ball. He asked the other guy what did he see and the guy said ‘green’. He asked me what did I see and I obviously replied :

“I see my Dad crying while watching The Antiques Roadshow on a Sunday night on BBC 1.”

“What ???” the coach replied.

“You see “ I explained “ when we were children there was the ‘good room’ at home that was always kept clean, it was full of fine bone china and Waterford glass in cabinets, family portraits, shag pile carpet and we were never allowed in there except on Christmas morning to get our presents from under the tree. It also had a coffee table in the centre of the room and on the coffee table was an old oil pink porcelain pedestal lamp with a very ornate and delicate glass shade. This room was for visiting priests, relatives and friends of Mum & Dad only.

But one day our cousins were visiting from Dundalk and it was raining outside so we , all 7 of us, were chasing a beach ball around the house and followed it into the good room where, somehow, it ever so gently in slow motion , breezed against the lamp shade which immediately exploded in a cloud of dust. No one was certain who had touched the beach ball last ….it was Stephen…..

Mum & Dad were a bit upset, but we were kids , our cousins were there, and no real fuss was made.
But then , many, many years later , one Sunday evening Dad was watching the Antiques Roadshow on BBC 1 and lo and behold the identical twin of our old lampshade was there being appraised. The expert said how rare it was to see one at all anymore intact. He said that normally they went for between £1,000 and £1,200, but as this one had it’s original lampshade in mint condition he though it would fetch £2,500 to £3,000. The Battenburg fell back into Dad’s mug of tea as he sat gaping at the television and then tears started to roll down his cheeks…..”

“That’s fascinating , Paul” the coach interrupted, “ but I’d simply asked what colour you could see !”

“Oh, sorry, green.”

“WHAT ? You can’t see green ! He can see green, you can see blue !” the coach was getting a little testy now.

“Sorry” I said again “but it’s a green-y blue, really , the plastic is so thin it’s hard to say.”

“Never mind ! Let’s take a coffee break. 20 minutes everyone.” And with that the coach took a Bic pen and punctured the beach ball in front of us, muttering away to himself.

I decided not to go back, conflict resolution is harder than it looks.

Not sure what could have put that into my head.

Anyway , have a great weekend !
Paul
 
 
 

THANKS !

Last Sunday, St.Patrick's Day, we ran in the Crocus 5k here in Monaghan and afterwards we presented the proceeds of our 5K -a-day challenge to SOSAD.

Ray , Patricia and I raised €2,500 during our 31 days of running.

a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped.

While running this song, Underdog by Turin Brakes kept popping into my head :

"Oh please save me, save me from myself. 
I can't be the only one stuck on the shelf. 
You said you'd always fall for the underdog."

ENJOY
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