Before you rely on one consultant or another.

1. Consultant: Pro or Con?
As Glinda the Good Witch said to Dorothy, “The Munchkins want
to know, are you a good consultant or a bad consultant.”
To which Dorothy replied, “I’m not a consultant at all…….”
“The Munchkins are laughing because, you see, I am a consultant.
Only bad consultants are mean and ugly.”
Years back, I did a short stint as a teacher. On parent teacher
night, Mrs. Parent came in because she was not pleased with her son’s
performance on his first math test.
Mrs. Parent was not accusatory. She did not lay blame. In fact, it
was worse. Apparently she must have attended one of those
“How to talk to your child’s teacher.” Programmes held by the
Social Service Ladies in the basement of the Community Centre.
“I’m not saying it’s your fault.”

2. “I’m not blaming you.”
But….
“Perhaps because you are a new teacher you haven’t acquired all
the skills you need.”
“I’m sure you’re a very intelligent person and you will make a good
teacher.”
Now, I heard this rhetoric before Mrs. Parent was born. Which is
why I said,
“First of all, Mrs. Parent, the first test of the year is a review of last
year’s work. This way I can tell how much the students remember, so I
can be sure everyone is on the same page.”
“Second, the first 2 or 3 questions are always easy questions. This
is to help the students’ confidence so they don’t have any math anxiety.”
Now…God is with me. And I can say that because this is a
Parochial School and there is much less censorship. Not is what we are
not allowed to say, but less of what we are required to say. Which
means I can tell you, Mrs. Parent came in with Mrs. Friend and Miss

3. Daughter. I said to Miss Daughter, “What grade are you in?” She
replied, “Sixth”. I wrote the first problem on the board and handed her a
piece of chalk. She solved the problem. I turned to Mrs. Parent.
“Now, your friend’s daughter solved the problem and she’s only in
the sixth grade. And this is the beginning of the year, so she didn’t get
to some of this material yet, so she learned it in the 5th
grade. And she
didn’t know there would be a test tonight, so she didn’t study for it.
There is no excuse for your son getting this question wrong.”
She thanked me and they left.
Long story short. “My parents had me up til 3 in the morning. They
didn’t cut me no slack. [Any slack. He’s not listening.] They didn’t cut me
no slack. I got to bring my grades up.
The Mrs. Parent’s cherub turned out to be one of my best
students. If he wasn’t the top 3 he was the top 2. I can’t say he was my
number one student because every student in the class has the right to
think that he or she is the best student in the class.
Where would that student have ended up if I listened to the
product of bad advice?

4. Consulting
In teaching there came the incumbent returning to college to be
certified to teach. One of the courses was a curriculum development
course. We were divided into groups and had to teach the class a
“lesson plan” that could be used in class.
Two of us were non-traditional students. We were returning to
school. The others were younger. Needless to say, we were
unprepared. (Crisis). The professor sent us out of the room to prepare to
present our lesson. We were not ready. What to do?
Well, the purportedly hysterical member of the group said, “Let’s
go back in, tell the Professor we’re not ready, do our lesson next week,
and take a drop in grade. (The paradigm du jour.)
I said, “No, we’re going to go back and teach a lesson.”
“We can’t write up a lesson in 5 minutes.”
“We don’t have to. The class will do our lesson.”
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. We can’t…”

5. The rest of the group, in a panic over a one letter grade demerit,
became my allies. ;-)
“We’re not going to write the lesson. The class is going to write
the lesson. Our lesson is going to be “How to Write a Lesson Plan.”
I will give the introduction.
You, tell the class, they have to decide on a lesson.
[The objective of the team]
You tell the class, they have to decide on the supplies.
[Resources available or needed]
You tell them, they have to come up with a procedure.
[A Corporate plan or strategy]
You tell them they have to decide on how to determine if the class
learned the lesson. [Deliverables and Measurables]
We went in, we delivered the lesson on how to come up with a
lesson plan, they worked at developing a lesson plan—Nailed It! Losing
neither face nor grade.

6. In your organisation, there will be those who are not focused on
the goal. Others who become hysterical. Some, desperate, who will
look to a leader.
In a crime of crisis, the group will look to someone. That person
may or may not be the boss. In either case, that person is the leader.
“Leaders are defined by their followers.”
“Look behind you. If people are following you, you’re a leader. If
they’re not, you’re not.”
“You can’t lead if you can’t manage.”
The Quotations of Slim Fairview. © 2016.
People seem to have little grasp of the concept.
“A team is not a committee. A committee is not a team.”
That is why I wrote:

7. Teamwork is for Teams
Teamwork or a Team
“Committees don’t solve problems, they cause them.”
“More people, more words. More words, more bad.”
In an article outlining how Emerging Nations could better deal with
Industrialized Nations, I wrote:
“There are only two reasons they [Industrialized Nations] want to
“talk about it.”
One, is to bully you into doing what they want you to do.
The other, is to bully you into doing what you don’t want to do.
In that article I outlined the tricks of Industrialized Nations. Those
same tricks are used in the corporate world. The Section of the Article
Emerging Nation Economic Union
DO NOT SURRENDER POWER

8. Old Chinese Saying
"Never underestimate the power of a symbolic gesture."
The Quotations of Slim Fairview
"The power of the symbolic gesture resides with the people making the gesture."
WESTERN TRICKS TO CONTROL EMERGING NATIONS
Click the above link to the article for a complete explanation.
Also:
Teamwork is for Teams
Teamwork or a Team
Warmest regards,
Slim.
Slimfairview@yahoo.com
slimviews@gmail.com
Copyright © 2016 Bob Asken
All rights reserved.