full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Betsy Kauffman: 4 tips to kickstart honest conversations at work


Unscramble the Blue Letters


And that mnoemt started getting me tnihnkig. Why as a society have we created this fear to speak up, especially in a group of our peers or our coworkers? Wouldn't it be amazing if you could tell your boss that that project deadline she put out there is completely unreasonable? And what about being able to tell a coworker that they're being really difficult?

Now I know some of you are lucky enough to be able to work in places that value that kind of openness and honesty, however in my work as a leadership and organizational coach, I have to tell you that is not the norm. I've obsreved hndredus of scenarios and coached multiple ppoele through sittanuios where they are afraid to speak up, they're ariafd to have those honset cotireosnanvs out in the open, especially when they're needed the most. And you probably know what I'm talking about: you're in meeting, somebody pitches an idea, not everyone agrees, but no one says a word. And then about two seconds later, somebody picks up their cell phone and bniegs sending a text message to somebody else in the same meeting, telling them how stupid the idea is. And let's not forget the proverbial wertcaoeolr conversations. As soon as the meeting over, they rush over to a peer or a group of coworkers probably near a watercooler and oeffr all kinds of opinions about that meeting. But the problem is that it's after the meeting instead of during it.

Open Cloze


And that ______ started getting me ________. Why as a society have we created this fear to speak up, especially in a group of our peers or our coworkers? Wouldn't it be amazing if you could tell your boss that that project deadline she put out there is completely unreasonable? And what about being able to tell a coworker that they're being really difficult?

Now I know some of you are lucky enough to be able to work in places that value that kind of openness and honesty, however in my work as a leadership and organizational coach, I have to tell you that is not the norm. I've ________ ________ of scenarios and coached multiple ______ through __________ where they are afraid to speak up, they're ______ to have those ______ _____________ out in the open, especially when they're needed the most. And you probably know what I'm talking about: you're in meeting, somebody pitches an idea, not everyone agrees, but no one says a word. And then about two seconds later, somebody picks up their cell phone and ______ sending a text message to somebody else in the same meeting, telling them how stupid the idea is. And let's not forget the proverbial ___________ conversations. As soon as the meeting over, they rush over to a peer or a group of coworkers probably near a watercooler and _____ all kinds of opinions about that meeting. But the problem is that it's after the meeting instead of during it.

Solution


  1. people
  2. watercooler
  3. honest
  4. moment
  5. offer
  6. afraid
  7. begins
  8. observed
  9. hundreds
  10. situations
  11. thinking
  12. conversations

Original Text


And that moment started getting me thinking. Why as a society have we created this fear to speak up, especially in a group of our peers or our coworkers? Wouldn't it be amazing if you could tell your boss that that project deadline she put out there is completely unreasonable? And what about being able to tell a coworker that they're being really difficult?

Now I know some of you are lucky enough to be able to work in places that value that kind of openness and honesty, however in my work as a leadership and organizational coach, I have to tell you that is not the norm. I've observed hundreds of scenarios and coached multiple people through situations where they are afraid to speak up, they're afraid to have those honest conversations out in the open, especially when they're needed the most. And you probably know what I'm talking about: you're in meeting, somebody pitches an idea, not everyone agrees, but no one says a word. And then about two seconds later, somebody picks up their cell phone and begins sending a text message to somebody else in the same meeting, telling them how stupid the idea is. And let's not forget the proverbial watercooler conversations. As soon as the meeting over, they rush over to a peer or a group of coworkers probably near a watercooler and offer all kinds of opinions about that meeting. But the problem is that it's after the meeting instead of during it.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
entire group 2
watercooler conversations 2
captain obvious 2
larger group 2



Important Words


  1. afraid
  2. agrees
  3. amazing
  4. begins
  5. boss
  6. cell
  7. coach
  8. coached
  9. completely
  10. conversations
  11. coworker
  12. coworkers
  13. created
  14. deadline
  15. difficult
  16. fear
  17. forget
  18. group
  19. honest
  20. honesty
  21. hundreds
  22. idea
  23. kind
  24. kinds
  25. leadership
  26. lucky
  27. meeting
  28. message
  29. moment
  30. multiple
  31. needed
  32. norm
  33. observed
  34. offer
  35. open
  36. openness
  37. opinions
  38. organizational
  39. peer
  40. peers
  41. people
  42. phone
  43. picks
  44. pitches
  45. places
  46. problem
  47. project
  48. proverbial
  49. put
  50. rush
  51. scenarios
  52. seconds
  53. sending
  54. situations
  55. society
  56. speak
  57. started
  58. stupid
  59. talking
  60. telling
  61. text
  62. thinking
  63. unreasonable
  64. watercooler
  65. word
  66. work