[Osmf-talk] Reaching out and diversity (Was: Re: AGM and board elections)

[Oleksiy Muzalyev]

Good morning,

I noticed several obvious communication errors in the discussions of
recent days:

- Usage of rude words. In verbal communication people can see that a
speaker smiles, can feel the charisma of a person, but in a written
communication they see just a rude word and can misinterpret the
message. So it would be better to avoid rude words in an e-mail. Polite
words, hard arguments.

- The very moment a participant starts to use an impolite harsh tone,
the argument is lost. Ungraciousness is a sign of weakness.

- If one receives an e-mail with uncivil undertones, the best strategy
is not to get involved into a rough exchange, not to declare "I go away"
in a childlike manner, but to answer in a short, technocratic,
businesslike way. Completely ignoring the discourteous part of a message
is a very strong answer in itself. /"Silence is one of the hardest
arguments to refute."/ /Josh Billings

-/  A French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and philosopher
Blaise Pascal wrote: "I would have written a shorter letter, but I do
not have time" [1].

- More than 80% of people who make a suggestion or a complaint
(statistics from a claim handling training course) just want to
/"improve the world"/. A sincere answer: "we see what you mean, and we
will try harder" is enough, more often than not.

With best regards
Oleksiy

[1] /"Je voudrais avoir écrit une lettre plus courte, mais je n’en ai
pas le temps."// / http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/attachments/20140930/ba5565d6/attachment.html>