Note: never try to ascertain the truth, because
there rarely exists one. Don’t impose you point of view on the students,
because it will hinder the discussion. Encourage each point of view.
Resources:
1) Two
sales reps were sent to Africa from the USA to investigate the shoe market and
provide exhaustive reports on possibilities.
Naturally,
they saw the same, but their reports were different:
"They all go barefoot. There are no
possibilities,” wrote one of them.
"There are
hige possibilities, because they all go
barefoot,” wrote the other.
2) The
usual "the glass is half-full/half empty. You may extend on it, proposing to
imagine, what different people might say about this. For example, a cynic will
say: "who has drunk the other half?’A realist will say: "The liquid will not
overflow because the liquid doesn’t reach the brims” etc.
Questions to be discussed:
1) Do both
texts present the same attitude?
2) Whose
position is more realistic: that of a pessimist, or that of an optimist?
3) Whom would
you like to have for your CEO —an optimist or a pessimist?
4) Can
there be a balance between the both?
5) What
would you say if you lose job:
a) "I am ruined. I have lost
everything.”
b) "That’s interesting. I
now have new opportunities open for me.”
c) Other options.
6) Can it
be dangerous to be surrounded only by optimists?
II. PARKINSON’S LAW:
"Work files
up so as to take all the time you have to complete it, and employees multiply
at a fixed rate, irrespective of the amount of work produced.”
What are
the possible interpretations of this phrase?
1) Does it
imply that people are usually not able to plan their time and human resources
efficiently?
2) Does it
imply that a worker intuitively distiributes his time so as to fit the alloted
time-span?
3) Does it
imply it is pointless to set a period of time for the amount of work?
