What's This Blog About?

Hello. You may have noticed that I'm creating a pretty intense blog about Repertory Grid, and am about to start another blog about Assessment Centres and Development Centres. Pretty intense stuff. So, for light relief, I thought I'd try posting a collection of jokes and stories that have their own particular relevance - or sting - in the context of business and management, including a fair number of stories that poke fun at consultants. As well as jokes, I propose to share my favourite anecdotes, bons mots, and perceptive statement gleaned from a wide variety of sources; also some longer excerpts that may surprise you, infuriate you, or inspire you - on the grounds that that's what they do for me.

One of my lesser claims to fame is that I was able to help the Oxford English Dictionary to trace the first instance of the term 'shaggy dog story.' (It was an article in Esquire magazine in the 1930s). The original isn't all that funny, but I love this one from the same article, and it's very handy if you want to make a point about the importance of customers. Watch the audience - some will get it quickly, others take a while to grasp the point. Here goes:

There was a Yorkshireman who'd lived in the village all his life, and in retirement he earned ten shillings a week by polishing the brass cannon at the town's war memorial. He'd done this for several years when one day he came into the kitchen, threw his keys onto the table, and said 'That's it. Ah've chucked in t'job.'

'Eeeh, Ah am vexed,' said his wife. 'What you want to do that for?'

'Ah'm fed up wi' being beholden to other people,' he replied. 'Ah've been saving up me pennies, and Ah've bought me own brass cannon and I'm going into business for meself.'

Love,

Valerie.