Mistaken Identity
Had a great weekend at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. In between breathless celebrity spotting (Juliet Stephenson, Larry Lamb, Joanna Lumley, Caitlin Moran…) I also went to some very interesting seminars.
Sometimes, what I hear really chimes with my professional life. On this occasion, there was a classic comment made during a seminar on the US and the UK, exploring the so-called ’special relationship’.
I’m sure many people will remember the ho-ha that surrounded the removal of Winston Churchill’s bust by the Obama administration, almost as their first act on entering The White House. A snub, many British media/people considered it, and a sign that things were going to change from the Bush/Blair era.
A quiet word by a BBC correspondent a few months later with an official revealed that they didn’t see it as a big deal at all (”You guys!!”) they thought it was Eisenhower….
True or not, I guess the message here doesn’t need underlining but is a fundamental principle of business communication. Always, always check your facts - don’t be fearful of asking the obvious questions - before working on assumptions.
Just do me a favor and keep writing such trceanhnt analyses, OK?
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