Ross gets annoyed… then realises that probably wasn’t the point.

Hello, I had a bit of a moment today.  Had a meeting where I was in direct conflict with someone else, and the whole thing got fairly emotive.  It was like escalation of commitment in action – as each of us got more annoyed, it made the other more annoyed, until it looked like we might need some sort of mediation to get us out of the room alive… I then got on the tube to go home, still fairly frustrated and irritated, and realised that probably wasn’t the best way to react.  Everything we learnt on Boot Camp would tell us that we need to separate out stimulus and response – allow ourselves to feel how we feel, but not become attached to that feeling or let it rule us such that it manifests itself in a negative way.  I’m not sure I quite lived and breathed that today.  My Marketing Academy Coach gave me a great exercise of imagining I’m in a glass box in meetings and I choose to open it or close it to what others say or do (and thus am in control of my reaction) – unfortunately, in this case I left the box at home… So I guess the moral of this story is we’re learning a lot on the Marketing Academy, but putting it into practice brings its own challenges.  At least I’m recognising when I don’t quite hit the mark, and resolving to do it differently next time. Until next time – first ‘Lunch and Learn’ at the beginning of August with none other than Martin Glenn from Birdseye.  Excitement building, and I’m sure a blog description will be required… @rossfarquhar