The Training Box Newsletter October 2017
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Tales from the world of Alysoun
We asked Alysoun to share with our readers her unique perspective on the value of relating life’s lessons in general to workplace challenges and opportunities. In this month’s newsletter Alysoun reflects on the intricacies of communication, being clear about your outcomes, and the interplay between what you think and what you can achieve.
We are delighted to introduce you to Alysoun Sturt-Scobie, our guest contributor for this edition of The Training Box newsletter. Alysoun has worked as a European HR Director with European, Indian, Russian, North American and Asian businesses. She has a passion for improving the performance of individuals and teams. Throughout her life, sport has always been important; she says it keeps her sane! She took up long distance cycling at the age of 40 and in 2013 took a year-long sabbatical from a very successful career to take up a three part challenge: Geneva’s “tour du lac”, a stage of the “tour de France” (both on a bicycle) and then an epic “tour du monde”, crewing in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race (40,000 nautical miles, 15 races over 8 legs on brand new 70 foot racing yachts – 12 teams competing against each other). And just as a minor (but somewhat significant detail) Alysoun had never sailed before embarking on this adventure of a lifetime. Embarking on the cycling challenges and the round the world yacht race was an important milestone, challenging the perceived boundaries of life and an opportunity to see what she was really capable of achieving in physically challenging and often dangerous environments whilst raising money for educational and health charities in Africa and India.
“The mind is everything, what you think, you become”
Buddha
Alysoun’s Tips
The communication challenge
Alysoun shares her thoughts…
“I’ve worked in the field of HR management for over 20 years now in both permanent and interim assignments. And I’ve also competed at an amateur level in sport since I was a teenager, as well as competing in the Clipper round the world yacht race. I like challenges, getting things done and enabling others to achieve their goals, as individuals or in teams. I often work with people from different countries.
When I first moved away from the UK I became very aware that not only do I often speak quite quickly but I also use a lot of colloquialisms. This can be most confusing even for someone from another part of the UK, let alone from another country. Recently I’ve been working with English speakers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. Talk about “nations divided by a common language”! As someone originally from the UK I can honestly say that if I wore “thongs” – on my FEET as the Australians do, I’d probably fall over and break something. If I “mooched” in Canada, as I might do at home in the sense of casually wandering around, then I’d probably be reprimanded for begging or stealing. Is it any wonder that some of us struggle with communication, even if we technically speak the same language. Communication is further complicated by mannerisms, body language and even tone of voice…! If then, as Milton Erickson is reputed to have said, “the meaning of the communication is the effect”, then heaven help some of us!”
