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with emotional intelligence at work

Newsletter 68 : 1 may 2012

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Greetings

Welcome to our newsletter. As ever, we like to offer a change from other newsletters which can demand an awful lot of reading.

Emotional intelligence radio show of the week

Joseph Wolpe developed a radical treatment for patients with phobias. It became the foundation of behaviour therapy, with its concentration on learning a different response to a stimulus. Because it paid no attention to the patient’s childhood or underlying psychological experiences, it was a radical departure from the established psychoanalytic method of psychiatry then prevalent. Fascinating programme about a change process that might (or might not) be considered the antithesis of EI. (dur c30 mins)

More programmes from this excellent BBC series.

Birthday quotations of the week

—If the chance ever comes to you to fall in love, grab it, every time. You might always live to regret it, but you won’t find anything to beat it, and you won’t know if it will come to you once more.

—Everyone in my book [Catch 22] accuses everyone else of being crazy. Frankly, I think the whole society is nuts—and the question is: What does a sane man do in an insane society?

Joseph Heller, b 1 May 1923, American novelist and playwright.

Teach every child about food

If you want someone to change their behaviour you have to engage with them at an emotional level. In this video, Jamie Oliver (like him or loathe him) offers a consummately skilled object lesson in how to do this. Not only is the message important, so is how he delivers it. (dur 21:53)

Song of the week

Norma Winstone transforms what is surely a rather irritating song (Tea for two) into a poignant ballad. So how does she do it? (dur 5:01)

Extra birthday quotation of the week

—Publish and be damned.

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, b 1 may 1769, soldier and statesman
(His response in 1824 to John Joseph Stockdale who threatened to publish anecdotes of Wellington and his mistress.)

Salutary lesson of the week

Jeremy uses a true story to show why it doesn’t always help for consultants and coaches to know too much about their clients’ business.

Increasing compassionate care

Nurses are getting a lot of stick from politicians and the media for a supposed lack of compassion.

The premise of our programme, Increasing compassionate care, is that healthcare staff in hospitals are intrinsically compassionate. But they find their capacity to express compassion is compromised by a variety of factors. The programme is intended for all staff who have direct contact with patients and their relatives and the focus is as much on avoiding the problems of compassion fatigue and burnout as it is on dealing with them should they arise. The primary outcome is a higher level of care experienced by the patient.

Do contact Jeremy if you can help us promote this important subject in the NHS.

All contributions welcome
If you have been, thank you for reading.

Jeremy