Keeping Your Cool When Others Don't; Making Your Own Luck

Watching the latest two releases in the American Management Association's F.Y.I. series is kind of like eating a chicken sandwich...only without the chicken. Keeping Your Cool When Others Don't is ostensibly about conflict management, and features aikido expert cum business circuit lecturer Thomas Crum talking about centering: as in, when conflict arises, you should center yourself and embrace the conflict. More specifically, Gail Hammack, a problem-solver at McDonalds, says: "find your bellybutton." Not helpful? Okay, how about this: when that fellow staff person whom you know without a doubt is a medical miracle (since he or she is drawing a paycheck, but doesn't actually have a brain) pushes your button again, you should ponder the parable of the oyster: a piece of sand begins as an irritant but turns into a pearl. It's just that simple--next time you're in a stressful situation with a co-worker, find your bellybutton and think about oysters, and everything will be peachy keen. Or not, if you happen to think this is a lot of claptrap. Making Your Own Luck isn't quite as bad, but it also suffers from misdirection. Rather than simply profile three successful people who achieved what they did through a combination of hard work and latching on to opportunities, we have to listen to "expert" Ellen J. Wallach talk about the various kinds of luck (by accident, retrospect, design, and opportunity) and which ones can be influenced and which can't and blah, blah, blah. So, the information in a straightforward motivational business tape is needlessly obscured by a rather pointless dog and pony show. Neither of these programs are necessary purchases. (R. Pitman)