First Management Textbook

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Alice In Wonderland

Competencies:  adaptability/stress tolerance, intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, interpersonal sensitivity, oral communication skills, listening skills, oral presentation skills, managing self, planning skills, organizing skills, written communication 

Who benefits: anyone with a sense of humor

Consultant Usage: It’s just a fairy tale

What’s it about? Workplace competencies have been around for a long time.

One of the least known factoids regarding employee development is that workplace competencies from our own Envisia Learning research served as the backdrop for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland … considered by some to be the first management textbook. 

Experts on the topic will note that the quotes in this post come from a number of different copies of the book and film.  Inconsistencies were the only consistent.  This may be due to the difficulties of translating the book from English to English.

While some will remain skeptical, below are just a few of our competencies followed by the appropriate quote from Alice and her associates:

Emotional Intelligence/Adaptabililty

Alice struggles with both intrapersonal skills (knowing self) and interpersonal skills (relating to others).  On at least three occasions in the book she engages in dialogues of self-identity.

Alice: “‘I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!'”

Later:

Caterpillar: “Who… are… you?”
Alice: “Why, I hardly know, sir. I’ve changed so much since this morning, you see…”
Caterpillar: “No, I do not C, explain yourself.”
Alice: “I’m afraid I can’t explain myself, you see, because I’m not myself, you know.”
Caterpillar: “I do not know.”
Alice: “I can’t put it any more clearly, sir, because it isn’t clear to me.”

Still later:

“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir,” said Alice, “because I’m not myself you see.”

Then she struggles with her interpersonal relationships:

“Take some more tea” the March Hare said to her.
Alice said, “Thank you.  But I haven’t had any yet, so I can’t take more.”
“Yes you can,” the Hatter said.  “Anybody can take more than nothing.”
“… I don’t think—”
“Then you shouldn’t speak,” the Hatter said.
Alice was angry.  

Interpersonal Sensitivity

“Off with her head!”

Oral Communications/Listening Skills

This classic exchange illustrates perfectly the importance of clear, concise speaking skills along with the need to develop active listening skills in order to clarify what is being said:

“Mine is a long and a sad tale!” said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing.
“It is a long tail, certainly,” said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse’s tail; “but why do you call it sad?” And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking.
“You are not attending!” said the Mouse to Alice, severely. “What are you thinking of?”
“I beg your pardon,” said Alice very humbly: “you had got to the fifth bend, I think?”
“I had not!” cried the Mouse, sharply and very angrily.
“A knot!” said Alice, always ready to make herself useful, and looking anxiously about her “Oh, do let me help to undo it!”

Oral Presentation

“Speak English!” said the Eaglet. “I don’t know the meaning of half those long words, and I don’t believe you do either!'”

Managing Self

My colleague and friend Jeanne Hartley would probably suggest that Alice needs to develop her “pay attention” skills.

Alice: ‘Well, when I was lost, I suppose it’s good advice to stay where you are until someone finds you. But who’d ever think to look for me here?  [sigh]  Good advice. If I listened earlier, I wouldn’t be here. But that’s just the trouble with me. I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.”

Planning

Poor planning and lack of organization can confuse and mislead employees, leading to poor performance and poor productivity.

Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

Written communication

“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

And so on and so forth.  With careful reading you can find at least six or seven additional near universal  workplace competencies.  So next time you read this book to a child, be sure to let the little one know that while one could call this book a Fairy Tale, in reality it is a fairly accurate portrayal of the world of work.

Catch you later. 

[tags] alice in wonderland, adaptability/stress tolerance, intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills, interpersonal sensitivity, oral communication skills, listening skills, oral presentation skills, managing self, planning skills, organizing skills, written communication, envisia, envisia learning, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.