Small Talk
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
134 . the fine art of small talk<br />
the instructors might best use small talk. I was grouped<br />
with a family from Alabama who had never even seen<br />
snow before. As the lesson progressed, the instructor noticed<br />
how cautiously I was skiing—I was even more reticent<br />
than the Alabamians! The instructor decided that I<br />
must have had weak quad muscles. He showed me some<br />
strengthening exercises to solve that problem.<br />
The real problem was that the adviser/instructor diagnosed<br />
the difficulty without even consulting me. He<br />
had no idea that I am an avid runner; my quad strength<br />
is fine, thank you very much! It was my terror at standing<br />
at an altitude of over eleven thousand feet that practically<br />
paralyzed me. Had the instructor bothered to find<br />
that out, he would have given me a much more effective<br />
skiing lesson. Had he dug deeper, he would have discovered<br />
that his premature analysis of my problem was completely<br />
incorrect.<br />
Physicians are among the most notorious advisers.<br />
They frequently interrupt the patient and diagnose the<br />
problem before the patient has a chance to tell the whole<br />
story. Frequently, the patient doesn’t get to the heart of<br />
the matter until the doctor has his hand on the doorknob,<br />
about to exit the room. If the doctor would sit and
Change language