colours

Let’s do this; Mr. A, settle whatever it is that needs to be settled with our investors. Find out what they want. Let them know, however, that we’ll commit to this project no matter what they say. Miss B, prepare the statistics; graphs, charts, whatever. Oh and everyone else, like I said, we’ll commit to this project, so be prepared to be called upon. We’ll meet again two days from now to discuss whatever progress. Any questions?

No, no, you shouldn’t have done that! You’re an idiot! You’re all idiots! How can you call this a plan? I don’t want it done like that! What were you thinking? Do as I say, no suggestions!

Oh, we’re totally f**ked! Find a way to get everything UNf**ked! Now, dammit! Call the investors, let them know what happened. Tell them we’ll do what it takes to save this project. Tell them to have faith. Or whatever.

OK, having carried out that project of ours, this is where we went wrong;…. Next time, I suggest we do it like this;….

I think we should do this project, and I think we should do it like this; ….. oh no waitaminute, if we do it like that then maybe this will happen;…. Oh waitaminute, come to think of it, it’s not a bad idea at all. Anyone have any idea? …yeah that’s a good one Mr. C, however, if we do that, we might in the end be faced with…. Oh waitaminute. Hmmmm.. no, no, Miss D, doing it like that would surely end us up in a total f**kup. So no, we won’t entertain that. But waitaminute. It’s an OK suggestion really..

Words in blue is planning. These are cakap positif, because it mainly results in positive things. Words in brown is cakap negatif. When these words are used, people might lose confidence and tend to lose interest in doing whatever is being done. But then again, it might also spur people do to amazingly positive things. Words in violet is disaster recovery. With these words, errors have less impact than they would have. Can be considered cakap positif. Words in green is post mortem, where whatever errors and how a certain plan had been carried out is evaluated at the end of the project, another cakap positif.

These words bring results. It might be negative and/or positive results, but they bring results nevertheless, hence the need for them in any projects.

Words in red, however mild and negotiate-y they might seem, are the most malicious. These words, they are cakap kosong. It rolls everything up, from planning to post mortem, into one discussion before any project got started. This discussion might have taken place a hundred years before, and chances are the project being discussed won’t be taking place in another hundred years, if ever. In short, these words result in projects being stagnant at the discussion stage. Not planning, just mere discussion.

Choose your words carefully. And start doing something, for goodness sake!

That word in bold is called an emphasis, by the way