The art of skilful conversation

Photograph: www.careerdevelopmentplan.net.

WHEN last did you have a truly stimulating and fruitful conversation that generated thought and/or inspired action? How often do you really engage with your colleagues and feel that you have learned or conveyed something new and useful?

The truth is, most conversations just drift along. Often, the same people say the same old things with little impact on anyone or anything. In business, this can be hugely wasteful. And, given that managers spend 30% – 60% of their eight-hour days in meetings – essentially having managed conversations – the potential for waste is enormous.

As a manager, you require meaningful communication rather than babble. The premise is that quality conversations generate understanding, creativity and practical thinking that lead to valuable action.

In fact, in this, the knowledge age, business success increasingly hinges on engaging colleagues, customers and associates in conversations that question reality, incite learning, tackle tough challenges, tap aspirations and enrich relationships. The challenge then, is for managers to learn how to successfully manage dialogue for effective understanding and dynamic results.

“Unfortunately, few companies appreciate just how much time, effort and resources are wasted during badly managed meetings and conversations,” says Richard Mulvey, CEO of Durban-based management training company Perception Business Skills. “Few people receive any training on how to conduct productive meetings. Most chairpersons simply follow examples according to their experience, and in many cases these are poor examples.”

Senior lecturer at the Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Witwatersrand, Conrad Viedge says that, in addition to being wasteful, poorly managed meetings can result in misunderstanding and inappropriate action.

“Where the objective of a meeting is to bring about a common understanding, rather than deal with day-to-day management issues in regular meetings, a special process is needed,” he comments.

To this end, the business school uses a process called ‘skilful conversations’ ¬– which is partly based on the theories of Professor Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization.

A module on skilful conversations is often included as part of executive education programmes to illustrate how management teams should come to a deep understanding of the key issues in the organisation. These issues include such fundamental questions as:

• What is our recipe for making money?
• Who are our targeted customers?
• How should we go about retaining key talent?

The skilful conversation process serves two purposes – one to gain consensus and a deep understanding of some fundamentals of the business, and the other, to illustrate what typically goes wrong in ordinary meetings.

“Skilful conversation is one in which people interact freely, exchange ideas, listen and respond appropriately and thereby generate good thinking,” says Viedge. “Ideally, this dialogue would include insightful questioning and also regular summaries to ensure that everyone agrees that a common understanding has been reached. Where successfully managed, conversation should benefit from every member’s knowledge, experience and creativity. The value to the individual members of the group is a better understanding of the fundamentals of the business, which then ensures that better decisions are made.”

Conversations, he asserts, are vehicles for stimulating effective thinking. People not only think when they respond to other people’s statements and management accounting information, they are also stimulated to think when they are required to formulate their own opinions when they contribute to the discussion.

It stands to reason therefore, that in meetings of this type, one should endeavour to create an environment that stimulates thinking by both provoking participants with reliable and interesting data, and by encouraging active participation and response.

“To make things simple and easy to follow, our guidelines for skilful conversations have been reduced to just three. These are: to focus on the topic, ask questions to check your understanding, and summarise regularly to check the common understanding of the group,” explains Viedge.

“To shepherd the process, one member of the group is appointed as the ‘keeper of the flame’. All this person has to do is to gently bring the group back on track in terms of the three guiding principles.”

Even with these three simple guidelines, he says, experience showed that groups did not automatically follow the guidelines, and therefore when the process is run at the business school two observers are used to give feedback to the group on how they are performing in terms of running a successful skilful conversation.

“The feedback from the observers typically works exceptionally well, and within a short space of time the groups are benefiting from following the guidelines.”

How to arrange a skilful conversation

• Limit the number of participants to no more than five.
• Remember the objective is to create ‘deep understanding’.
• Encourage everyone to participate as equals.
• Appoint a ‘keeper of the flame’ to keep the conversation focused on the topic, but not to act as a gatekeeper or chairperson.
• Limit contributions to one idea at a time.
• Ask people to explain the assumptions that underpin what they say.
• Try and get to the meaning behind the words.
• Listen actively to all contributions.
• Try and build on the previous contribution.
• Summarise regularly and check for understanding.

(First published in Business Day’s Management Review supplement.)

Bones thrown, ancestors consulted and business problems solved

Sangomas are consulted for many reasons, increasingly too, by businessmen and women. (Photograph: Zululand Eco Adventures.)

MOVE over management consultants and executive coaches. Here come the sangomas. In their animal skins, feathers, beads and Gucci glasses, bones are thrown, ancestors consulted, business and career problems diagnosed, advice and medication dispensed, and MasterCard accepted. With some, you can even initiate consultations online.

In a new wave of reverence for traditional healing, a growing number of South African business executives of all races are consulting African diviners to help resolve business problems, define career paths and make crucial organisational decisions.

Solutions are sought for interpersonal workplace conflict. Guidance is required by managers who have to retrench or recruit staff. Advice is asked before business partnerships are concluded. Ancestors are consulted prior to signing contracts or accepting promotion. In essence, there is little in business about which the bones cannot be thrown.

Interestingly, while their techniques may literally be worlds apart, there are some striking similarities between the work of sangomas and coaches. In some cases, it seems, semantics is all that differentiates the two. Traditional healers, for example, help patients “unblock channels”, while coaches assist clients to “identify and eliminate blind spots”.

Nicky Robins, who trained at the Ngwenyama School for Traditional Healers in Botswana, says that companies “seek greater awareness of the interaction between individuals, organisation and stakeholders”. She believes that the holistic approach of the sangoma can effectively help develop, integrate and sustain the value of human, social, cultural and natural capital for both the company and individual involved.

“A growing number of executives and major corporations are acknowledging the impact sangomas can have on their business and are accepting how lucky we are, on this continent, to have rich African traditions and tools to guide us,” says Robins, referring to the bone throwing, dancing, meditation, singing and other rituals performed by sangomas.

Similarities aside, coaches and most sangomas have different approaches to diagnosis. The key for the coach is to listen while client describes in minute detail what he or she believes to be his or her strong and weak points, ultimately reaching a point of self-diagnosis.

Consult a sangoma however, and you should not reveal anything about yourself.

“It is for the sangoma to divine the problem, its mental, emotional and physical causes, and the appropriate treatment. This way, the healer’s authenticity can be established,” explains fully qualified Swazi sangoma, Makosi Umfundise.

Authenticity, says Makosi, is a matter of grave concern in the sangoma fraternity, particularly in urban areas where a growing number of charlatans simulate healers and make a living from the vulnerable and uninformed.

“A family member or objective friend should accompany the patient to the sangoma to verify the diagnosis, to confirm the legitimacy of the healer and to ensure that the patient does not agree to anything that is said just to get at the medicine or the solution,” he adds.

Traditionally, sangomas are only paid once the patient is cured or the solution found. Nowadays however, patients must “expect to be billed at rates commensurate with the diviner’s professional status”, says sangoma Johannes Sibanda, who offers online consultation via his own website.

Western influence on sangoma practice is unmistakable and indeed, in recent years there has been a proliferation of white sangomas in South Africa.

Makosi, who was ordained after years of training in Soweto in 1982, says there were always white sangomas. There is no cultural or racial exclusivity among the healers. He attributes the recent increase in the number of Caucasian sangomas to “a new climate of acceptance” and “an attraction among some groups to what they perceive to be an interesting new age-type activity”.

Robins believes that some black executives prefer to consult white sangomas with business and career problems because they perceive the healers to be more understanding of the nature of their increasingly Western-type problems.

“There is often a sense of straddling cultures and I think that some clients feel that a white sangoma is more in tune with the transition they are going through than perhaps a healer with more traditional roots might be,” she says.

Makosi disagrees: “If a black person chooses to go to a white sangoma rather than a black sangoma, I think it is because they are more convinced of the white’s authenticity. They realise how difficult it is to accept the calling to become a sangoma, particularly if you are white.”

Sangomas in action

RICHARD is the CEO of medium-sized company in the media industry. Late last year, the organisation experienced months of what he describes as “mysterious discord”.

“Things were just not right. Managers were disagreeing on everything, staff were unsettled and nothing was falling into place. Regardless of what interventions we introduced, the situation did not improve,” he explains.

“I first met a sangoma in a township during my youth and remember how impressed I was by her incredible intuition and the deep faith that her people had in her. I have long thought that it is a tragedy that South African managers are generally so dismissive of techniques other than those developed and used by Western organisations. So, when my fellow directors and I could not put a finger on the dissension in our company and other interventions had failed to make a difference, I followed my instinct and went, together with a colleague, to see a sangoma.”

Richard and his colleague were astonished at how quickly and accurately the diviner identified their problem and recommended a solution.

“We were not led in anyway and, hardly spoke to her before she followed a number of rituals, threw the bones and essentially put everything into perspective for us.”

He concedes that once the diviner had communicated with his ancestors and discussed their recommendations, he and his colleague realised that the solution to their problem was obvious.

“What she did was essentially help us see the problem from a completely different perspective, which confirmed what we may already have known in our subconscious and enabled us to immediately see what actions were required to sort it out. Who knows how long it would have taken us to see this if we had not consulted the sangoma.”

Richard says that he and his colleagues plan to make regular visits to the sangoma to help keep business running smoothly.

Other companies too, have seen the benefits of introducing traditional African rituals. Cleansing rituals, which involve the slaughtering of goats or cattle, are known to be held by corporations in a number of parts of SA.

“The most remarkable outcome of this,” explains the managing director of a company that regularly holds cleansing ceremonies, “is how it opens the gates for communication between people of different cultures within the company. We find that as long we discuss everything openly and with sensitivity, the response to these traditional rites is good. The ceremonies have assisted us to achieve diversity objectives that have not been realised by implementing other interventions that are used successfully by companies in other countries.”

(These two articles first appeared in Business Day’s Management Review.)

Develop your gut-feel to get ahead in business

In her book, PowerHunch, Dr Marcia Emery writes about the increasing importance of understanding and developing intuition in the information age.

French scientist, Alexis Carrel said, “All great men are gifted with intuition. They know without reasoning or analysis, what they need to know.” Recent studies among leaders confirm this and underscore the value of developing intuition.

BUSINESS is all about systems – rational, orderly systems for strategic planning, decision-making, forecasts, budgeting, operations, administration, production and practically ever other facet of an organisation. Advanced information technology has intensified the situation, making systematisation more affordable and easier to implement.

Yet, amid all this efficient electronically-driven methodology, business leaders the world over are increasingly acknowledging that many vital decisions, career choices and even fortunes are based intuition or ‘gut feel’.

In fact, a growing number of top executives – including retired chairman and CEO for Hewlett Packard, Lewis Platt and Darwin Clark, vice president for General Motors Europe – are ignoring the old stigma associated with an unscientific or illogical approach to management and have begun looking at ways of developing their intuition further.

Scientific research indicates that they might have found the elusive management edge.

Professor John Mihalasky of the New Jersey Institute of Technology is convinced that effective, superior decision-making correlates highly with intuitive ability. During his research he tested hundreds of business managers for intuitive ability. One of his experiments included 25 managers who had held top decision-making jobs for five years. Mihalasky selected them all from small manufacturing companies to ensure that committees had not diffused their decision-making. The results were remarkable: Of 25 men selected, 12 had doubled their companies’ profits in five years. Eleven of those 12 scored high on the intuitive test.

Other management researchers have observed the same correlation. Weston Agor, author of Intuitive Management: Integrating Left and Right Brain Management Skills, studied several thousand managers from across numerous industries and companies. He found that successful managers make effective use of intuitive decision-making.

Henry Mintzberg, professor of management at Montreal’s McGill University, also found that particularly in unpredictable and ambiguous situations, top managers rely on hunches to deal with problems that are “too complex for rational analysis”.

Intuitive thinking is a normal function of the brain, not a euphemism for clairvoyance or mystical precognition. It is, says intuitive management specialist, Roger Andersen “more than a hunch, instinct or simply wishful thinking. It is the instant acquisition of knowledge without conscious thought and absolute certainty upon discovering the right answer”.

Traditionally business has mistrusted intuitive responses because they have been understood to be based on feelings rather than facts. In fact, says Andersen, intuition is most effectively used when it supplements – rather than supplants – rational decision-making techniques. In partnership with rational, left-brain thought, intuition – which is housed in the right side of the brain, along with things like creativity, originality, imagination and emotions – can, he believes, empower individuals to work more effectively, efficiently and intelligently.

Most researchers claim that intuition can be developed. Madeleine van der Steege, MD of Johannesburg corporate coaching service, Leadership Action and Alignment, concurs: “Intuition or ‘expressing the inner voice’ is a cornerstone of emotional quota and emotional literacy, and is a major focus of executive coaching.”

She believes that in many cases intuition is very logical but this is sometimes only apparent in hindsight. Coaching helps individuals to trust their intuition and access right- and left-brain thinking, combine the two responses and come up with the best possible decision.

A critical first step to developing intuition is learning to listen to intuitive signals being sent from the brain. These messages are usually screened out as being irrational – which they are. Learning how to tune in to one’s intuitive radar is required to make use of such non-rational thoughts that may have previously been ignored.

Coaching, says Van der Steege, helps executives and teams access their intuition to review patterns, habits, pressures and uncertainties they face, rather than relying totally on memorised facts or technical analysis. It provides a safe environment in which people can integrate intuitive and rational intelligence and see the powerful results that follow.

Dr Marcia Emery of the Intuitive Management Consulting Corporation in California and author of PowerHunch, believes that business managers need – more than ever – to hone their intuitive skills to process the voluminous data that is synonymous with the information age.

“I have seen more and more leaders and business people using intuition to make crucial decisions and achieve remarkable successes, both in their and business and their personal lives. They have learnt that logic and intuition are necessary companions. Logic helps you organise and assess the forest of information in which we live. Intuition ignites the visions and insights that inspire you. Both logic and intuition are required to turn your visions into reality, to make your dreams come true.”

Develop your intuition to:

• Increase your confidence in risk-taking
• Resolve compelling situations in a quick and inspired manner
• Differentiate intuition from fear, doubt and desire
• Reduce stress to retrieve clear perspectives
• Advance problem-solving or brainstorming sessions

(First published in Business Day’s Management Review supplement.)

New Year resolutions of a young writer

The book I bought to celebrate getting my first 'real job' 25 years ago, in which I wrote New Year resolutions that remain relevant today.

ALMOST exactly 25 years ago, I was employed as an assistant editor and journalist at a small publishing company in Cape Town. It was essentially my first ‘real job’ after university and, to celebrate the appointment, I bought myself a book, which cost a princely R25,55. (I write “princely” because my first salary (which I hadn’t yet received when I bought the book) was R600 per month before tax.)

Written by New York Times and Life columnist William Zinsser, “On Writing Well: An Informal Guide To Writing NonFiction” was the third edition of the book. It was, at the time, cutting-edge stuff, including a high-tech chapter on “Writing With A Word Processor”. (I first worked on a computer two years later.)

I can’t remember how thoroughly I read “On Writing Well” but it remains on a bookshelf behind my desk to this day, which is where I encountered it recently.

As I paged through the book, I found I’d written some notes to myself on the inside back cover. It struck me, as I deciphered my left-handed scrawl beneath the headline, “New Year resolutions”, that 25 years on, the older me could learn from the younger me. Here’s what I wrote:

1. Look for unexpected stories but don’t ignore what others are already talking/reading/writing about. Be opened minded and interested, no matter how unexciting the topic might first seem. Is there another angle? The more you learn, the more likely you’ll see an unanticipated angle.
2. Don’t be afraid to stand up to GW when he asks why you did something. Have answers ready. (GW was the owner/publisher of the company.)
3. Check and check again.
4. Don’t be nervous about asking questions that you think the subject might think you should already know the answers to. Don’t be afraid to ask questions that make people nervous if they are relevant to the story.
5. Don’t let PR people and/or advertisers/ad reps bully you.
6. Make notes of your notes when it’s possible interview subjects are going to deny/question quotes after publication. Save up for a recorder.
7. Remember you can’t include everything you have learned on the subject in all articles. Edit to the bone.
8. Don’t try and sound clever when you write. Just be clear.
9. Make every paragraph tell a story, however small – otherwise why write it?
10. Observe, observe, observe, ask, ask, ask…report.

Happy New Year!

Exclusive interview with Santa Claus just before Christmas 2010

Santa Claus at the V&A Waterfront. (Photograph: Show Works Creative Entertainment.)

In case you missed it last year, here’s a copy of my exclusive interview with Santa Claus, which was originally published in Business Day in December 2010. This year, I interviewed a number of his helpers. The article will be published shortly.

LESS than two weeks before the biggest night of the year for him, Santa Claus is looking jolly. But, while you might think that’s typical of the big man in the red and white suit, it’s been a tough year for Christmas Inc and, in an exclusive interview with Business Day, Claus concedes he’s had to keep his wits about him to maintain a sense of “ho, ho, ho” during the past 12 months.

“And just when we thought we were seeing the Northern lights at the end of the tunnel as the final month of the year drew closer, I received a call from the White House the other day warning me that Julian Assange of WikiLeaks was planning to release details of our current gift list on the internet,” explains Claus, in a tone that’s momentarily more woeful than ho-ful.

“Can you imagine the consequences? An absolute dearth of surprise on Christmas morning for millions as they open their gifts around the world? There’s no prize for guessing who is in pole position on my ‘who has been naughty list’ this year.”

2010 began on a difficult note for Christmas Inc when, with attention focused on melting ice caps in close proximity to its head quarters in the Far North, the company received calls from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reduce its carbon footprint.

“Look, we’re as committed to safeguarding the planet as anyone else is, but there’s not a great deal more we can do to reduce emissions and protect resources from within our business,” he says. “The elves have been using wood from sustainable forests for toy-making for years and our gift-wrapping is all recyclable. Following discussions with the SEC in February, however, we did put the reindeer on a special diet.”

The recipe for the new feed was developed by the University of Alberta in Canada and is said to reduce methane gas emissions in livestock by as much as 25%. Claus is pleased with the outcome thus far and says initial tests indicate the institution’s claim about their formula is “not just a lot of hot air”.

Reduced burping from Blitzen and less flatulence from Vixen were not enough, however, to allay concerns expressed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) regarding the risks associated with the reindeer passing through foot-and-mouth infected areas in South Korea, where more than 100 000 livestock have died due to an outbreak of the deadly disease in recent months.

This required a trip by Claus to Botswana recently where he successfully secured sufficient inoculations against foot-and-mouth from that country’s new vaccine laboratory, which was opened in Gaborone by president Seretse Khama Ian Khama earlier this month.

“We were very worried about the OIE’s concerns because we accept that, when it comes to the safety of animals in travel, the buck stops with them,” says Claus. “You can imagine our relief when we were able to collect the vaccines from Botswana. You might say we’re “deerly” grateful to your neighbour.”

In fact, Claus has visited southern Africa more than once already this year. He and Mrs Claus were among the organising committee’s VIP guests during the World Cup, an invitation the couple only accepted once Fifa president, Sepp Blatter had agreed to withdraw the football association’s condition that prohibited the flying of reindeer-powered vehicles within a 12 km radius of World Cup stadia.

“I tried not to get my stockings in a knot,” chuckles Claus, as he recalls the run-in. “Sepp and I have locked horns over similar issues before and he was smart enough to step down on this one before anyone was seriously red in the face. Hopefully, he won’t come up with any similarly nutty regulations in Brazil in 2012.”

Aside from providing excellent, live entertainment for him and his wife, the World Cup, he says, was also greatly enjoyed by the elves and fairies, who followed the tournament on television back home.

“They were captivated by South Africa. By the time we arrived home, Sugarplum Mary had perfected her midriff-baring Shakira moves and was Waka-wakering all over the place, barefoot and wearing a short skirt. The elves had built a vuvuzela assembly line, convinced the raucous instrument would top the list of requests for Christmas. What’s more, they continued to watch and read as much about your country as possible even though the soccer was over.”

This resulted in one particularly baffling incident. Some months after the World Cup, Claus noticed a souring in attitude among members of his work force: “The elves looked strangely disgruntled and Pepper Minstix, who has particularly low elf-esteem, muttered that he and a couple of the other helpers would like to talk to me about “the nationalisation of Christmas”, a notion they’d come up with having followed the antics of the African National Congress Youth League in your country,” he says.

“I was dismissive of the idea and expressed my disdain in no uncertain terms. The elf responded, “In that case, we’ll toy-toy”, which I put my mind to rest, given that making toys is what the elves are employed to do. And, after a curious couple of minutes of jigging energetically outside my office, the little group threw their little arms up in the air and went back to work. I didn’t hear anything more on the matter.”

But it hasn’t all been smooth sleighing since then. In addition to the recent WikiLeaks threat, Claus and his team have had to deal with late-in-the-year challenges posed by an onslaught of letters of request, sent primarily from Ireland, Spain, Greece and Portugal.

“I suspect that people in those countries were hoping for some other redemption before Christmas but, with their economy still faltering, panic has set in and our mail room is still flooded with requests, chiefly for huge sums of money from members of government.

“Because we don’t like to upset anyone, Mrs Claus and I discussed the benefits of appointing a customer experience officer or CEO to interact with all the hopeful individuals. Unfortunately though, we found that Cell C and Nando’s had already snapped up the most qualified comedians. So, there’s going to be some disappointment on Christmas morning. That’s the case too, for all those South Africans who’ve written letters requesting a new rugby coach for Christmas, I’m afraid.”

Despite the elves’ predictions regarding vuvuzelas, Claus reveals that the most prevalent gift requests this year include the Amazon Kindle and the Apple iPad, with many of the applicants undecided about which of the two they’d prefer to receive.

“I don’t think I’ve seen such indecision regarding which is best since the Coca-Cola and Pepsi wars began a century or so ago,” he chortles. “But actually, since I am an old-fashioned guy with minimal understanding of technology, you’d be just as well off asking Rudolph to suggest the best device for your needs. He unquestionably has a better nose for that kind of thing than I do.”

Commenting on the rigorous gym programme that helps ensure he’s physically strong enough to meet the challenges of his job and especially Christmas eve, Claus laughs once more, “Of course, I have to work out diligently. The global population is larger than ever. There are stacks of chimneys to navigate. So, hey, if you’d like to be naughty and save me at least one trip, I wouldn’t try to dissuade you. For sure, I wouldn’t say ho, let alone ho, ho, ho!”

(First published in Business Day in December 2010.)

Bathrooms go big

Bathrooms are getting increasingly larger as people consider them important living spaces and grow more creative in terms of furnishings. (Photograph: Villeroy & Boch.)

There is, I discovered researching this article for the Sunday Independent, no reason to be prudish about the 21st century bathroom as homeowners embrace it as an important living space.

ONCE upon a time, the bathroom was, in prim and proper circles at least, referred to as “the water closet” or, more priggishly still, “the WC”. Over the years however, the area has come out of the closet in a big way. It is, says Lisa Millbacher of Cape Town bathroom design company, Bespoke Bathrooms, getting bigger, bolder but, in many ways, more basic by the day.

Frameless glass is widely used for showers in new-look bathrooms. (Photograph: Novellini.)

“The ratio of bathroom to bedroom has increased,” she says, “and, as it has grown larger, the bathroom has increasingly become considered a more important living space, which demands the same design attention and which is influenced by the same design trends as other areas of the home.”

The outcome is that homeowners and designers are paying more and more attention to detail in bathrooms. They are spending more time and money on the design and building of the spaces. They are scrutinising bathroom options more closely and incorporating elements that create a single or superbly synchronised look.

People want basins, mixers, mirrors, baths, showers, cabinets and all other elements to work together perfectly, says Millbacher. As a result, designers such as well-known Italian creator of beautiful bathrooms, Antonio Citterio, now produce bathroom furnishings to match their fittings. The function, form and aesthetics of bath ware have arguably never received so much attention.

Modern bathrooms incorporate matching elements and the trend is clean-cut and simple with a natural touch. (Photograph: Hansgrohe.)

Trends aside, bathrooms remain deeply personal spaces. Styles depend on individual tastes, which could be sleek and sophisticated, classic, contemporary, traditional and everything in between.

“Although bathrooms are integral parts of the home and often reflect styles used elsewhere in the house, they are spaces in which we once again immerse ourselves in water – as if returning to the womb. In other words, they are immensely personal spaces whose look and feel depends entirely on the client and what makes him or her feel good,” says Millbacher.

The simple, clean-cut look, with shower slabs for the floor, frameless glass and the use of large wall tiles with minimal grouting, is among the most popular design choices in bathrooms at present. A room full of the latest luxuries and all manner of complicated and lavish treatments is passé. Minimalism reigns and colours are simple with neutral shades of ivory, grey, white and brown dominating.

And, whereas granite was the top choice for bathroom surfaces for many years, nowadays ceramics, porcelain tiles and natural stone are selected for state-of-the-art bathrooms. The trend, it seems, is not for opulence or surfaces that appear astonishingly expensive: instead it focuses on understated materials of high quality that are durable, practical and natural looking.

“Even the resin composite materials for sanitary ware has a more natural look, matt finish and silky, smooth feel,” says Millbacher.

You do not have to miss an episode of your favourite soap opera and/or you can enjoy a warm soak during the game. Television sets are popular new additions to bathrooms. (Photograph: Grandform.)

Intelligent technology – such as shower systems that accommodate iPods, mirrors that incorporate speakers and LED (light-emitting diode) lights – are selected in place of dated ornate mixers, decorative tiling and endless rows of shelving. Specially designed wall panels conceal toilet cisterns to replace traditional floor standing fixtures, giving the old loo a classy new look. And, if you like the idea of watching television from the comfort of your bath, shower or toilet, you can even install a fog-free and water and heat resistant flat screen television set, which doubles as a mirror when not switched on.

High-tech trickery notwithstanding, the design of bathroom gadgetry is also increasingly eco-friendly. There is a growing range of stylish new mixers and shower roses that use systems to reduce water and energy consumption available. You can even order a toilet seat and lid made, by a company in Copenhagen, from recycled plastic water bottles.

Or – particularly if you have a teenager like mine whose daily shower lasts for two hours if unchecked – you might want to install a closed circuit shower that uses a reservoir and recycling pump to ensure that regardless of how long you stay in the shower, you only use five litres of water. Now, there is a (water) closet I would get into.

(This article was first published in the Life section of the Sunday Independent.)

Expedite your way up the corporate ladder with better telephone etiquette

(Photograph: Philips.)

I WAS lucky enough – although I did not think so at the time – to sit alongside my boss in an open-plan office in my first job.

At the end of my second day at the company, she gave me some good advice: “If you are serious about your career and getting interviews with the right people, you have to learn how to use the telephone to your best advantage.”

She taught me to always introduce the publication on which I worked and myself in full – with first and last name – unhurriedly and clearly.

“Never assume, even if you have spoken to or met a person before, that they recognise your voice or that they can guess what you are calling about,” she advised.

“Once you have introduced yourself, explain very briefly why you are calling and enquire if it is a convenient time for them to talk. If the answer is no, immediately agree on a suitable time to call back. Do not delay them any further.”

My boss summed up her counsel by saying that since the telephone is the one of the workplace’s most frequently used tools, it made sense to learn how to use it effectively early in my career.

This telephone mentoring took place years before the advent of the cellular phone but, with the dramatically increased use of telecommunication, the advice is arguably more pertinent now than ever.

Yet, despite the fact that telephone is so much a part of our lives that it would seem incomprehensible to live without at least one, telephone etiquette has remained an extraordinarily neglected facet of business at many levels.

Granted, an increasing number of receptionists and personal assistants seem to have been provided with some training in this regard. Many executives, on the other hand, appear immune to telephone protocol and the benefits of making a good impression on the line.

I was reminded of this recently when I received a call from someone who had sent me an unsolicited e-mail some weeks before. He launched into a lengthy and breathy pitch without identifying himself, explaining the reason for his call or even linking it to the e-mail. After minutes of unceasing chatter from the stranger, I managed to interrupt him and pry out some facts. He seemed surprised by my questions and the conversation ended unsatisfactorily.

Ill-telephone-mannered executives are not exclusive to South Africa. In 1982 St Louis-based Nancy Friedman, a former receptionist and secretary, set herself up in the business of teaching and preaching telephone etiquette. Today her company, Telephone Doctor, is a thriving business that provides many Fortune 500 companies and individuals with telephone skills, ideas and techniques, which she says “translate into higher revenue, lower customer turnover and reduced stress”.

Friedman tells her clients that although most people develop enough of a telephone style to at least get by, there are some useful and effective telephone techniques that can help them climb the corporate ladder quicker and higher. The techniques are particularly useful for job seekers who are subject to telephonic interviews or who want to canvas job opportunities from companies on the phone.

Her company teaches simple steps, such as putting a ‘smile’ in your voice and speaking in a clear and normal tone: “This mode of communication relies on the messages relayed through the voice. Having a positive attitude and speaking with the right tone of voice are essential to convey messages correctly. Good posture also helps control the voice.”

The Telephone Doctor says proper telephone techniques involve other basic common sense such as:

• answer incoming calls in a timely manner;
• answer with a phrase like, “Good morning, Chris speaking, may I help you”;
• never put a caller on hold, but if you have to, check back with them every minute or so and ask if they would like to continue to hold;
• act as if the person you are speaking to on the phone is standing right in front of you;
• do not eat, drink or carry on another conversation with someone in the room while on the phone;
• if you are too busy to take the call, ask the person if you can call back rather than sounding preoccupied or rushed when you speak to them;
• when calling another business, give your full name and the company’s name;
• if you get the wrong number, apologise to the person who answers – do not just hang up. This is particularly important since the advent of Caller ID. It is easy to check who rudely hung up; and
• when leaving a message, state your name, company, phone number and a brief reason for calling. Speak slowly and clearly.

A final word of advice from my ex-boss: make a note of the names of personal assistants and even receptionists, and develop a rapport with them. If you are able to greet them by name, it will be help solicit their cooperation when you are trying to get in touch with their boss.

(First published on the Corporate Ladder page in Business Day.)