Today's Dilbert reminds me of some great advice Ari Fleischer handed out at CoSIDA this week in San Francisco. First, the king of office politics.
Pointy Headed Boss was sending his team to public speaking class. His goal: "they will rid you of your nervous habits . . . and with any luck, your personalities, too. You will become indistinguishable from robots."
On the other hand, Fleischer stressed being yourself and working within the personalities of the people you are with. It makes no sense to homogenize, and it can undermine the credibility of the speaker when they are so obviously outside of themselves.
That's not to say that Ari or others aren't saying be focused, know your talking points and make a forceful case for your point of view.
He's just reminding us that the oh-so-safe corporate way of pounding every last ounce of personality out of the spokesperson is usually not very successful. Well, I guess if one never had any personality to start with, the method espoused by Pointy Headed Boss would be true to form.
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