Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Dog Ate My Homework

Board members for one board I'm on receive weekly updates from the top executive of the organization.  Recently, we received a note from another staff member that the communication would be delayed because the executive had been bitten by a dog.    My first instinct was to assume that it was a bit of humor to explain the delay.  Another board member had the same reaction.  Unfortunately, he really did get a nasty bite. 

The communication made me realize that when we are in the position of explaining an unexpected situation or apologizing, we must ensure that our words are received as intended.   Otherwise our words may be about as believable as telling the teacher that the dog ate my homework.

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