A negotiator walks into a bar: a joke teaches a lesson on problem solving
Posted by: Diane Levin in Brainstorming and Creativity, DecisionmakingA friend recently sent me the following joke:
During a visit to a mental asylum, a visitor asked the director how to determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalised. “Well,” said the director, “we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient, and ask him to empty the bathtub.” “
Oh, I see,” said the visitor. “A normal person would use the bucket because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup.”
“No,” said the director, “a normal person would pull out the plug. Do you want the bed near the window?”
What I love about the joke — apart from the fact that it’s actually clean and therefore suitable to repeat in the presence of clients — is how neatly it illustrates an all too common problem: sometimes, when we are presented with several options, they may blind us to other choices — including the simplest and most sensible one.
When you’re looking for solutions or preparing to negotiate, are good ideas going down the drain?




Entries (RSS)
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Mediator joke:
How many mediators does it take to rehang a picture?
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come on take a guess,
how many mediators deos it take to rehang a picture?
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Give up?
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none,
Mediators don’t rehang pictures, we reframe them!
Bwahahahaha
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There are so few people I can tell that one to who will appreciate it.
Kevin Brown, Kingston Ontario, Canada
October 4th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Yeah, and we’re also the only ones who’ll get it, too! Thanks, Kevin, for the mediator humor!