How is it that people who spend most of their time in offices get to be so macho in their work?
We've all heard presentations from financial types saying stuff like: "We get 500 business plans through here every week/day/hour and we only back two of them."
There was quite a thing 20 years ago about going off to the woods and firing paint at eachother.
Round about then I applied for a budget for a day out and, thinking we had this sort of war games stuff in mind, our manager asked: 'Would £100 a head be OK?"
Nodding vigorously, hardly able to conceal my surprise, I grabbed the authorisation and we spent the whole lot on a piss-up. A really wonderful piss-up.
Now I see that a Shell exec plagiarised a speech to his troops given on the morning of D-Day by the US World War II leader, General George Patton.
"Pipeliners and engineers (changed from Patton's "Americans") love to fight and win, traditionally", said the Shell exec, "all real engineers ("Americans" - Patton) love the sting and clash of challenge."
If you're about to land on a Normandy beach with your guts churning, that's stirring.
If you're about to build a pipeline (which is what this Shell guy's audience was about to do) it must sound awfully silly.
Macho posturing from guys who spend their days in offices is probably a lot less motivational than a good p-u.
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