Promote Tourism

Obviously a plan to attract sharks to the coast, which are as likely to eat the tourists as to draw them in, is a bit controversial. So it's a good use for the PinTail project, which is a good observational test for you. How do we get on versus the angry people. This is right up there with last year's cultural exchange visit, where students from the twinned Scandinavian town, went to the sea-life centre with the local Nature Club. There was a just-in-time learning curve involving the Scandinavian understanding of Nature and Club. Fortunately Molly the Seal is fine although Google Maps, for reasons of international diplomacy, has temporarily removed Jakkliklach from the world. Look for roads to no-where which fade out in a mountain pass.

Seriously though, someone, is seeing an opportunity, that is going to generate a wall of noise. His honest recognition that there is something of value to be gained here, is going to come up against basic psychology. Myers-Briggs has a throw-away line, we are all introverts or extroverts. These words don't mean what you think they mean. It is not, have you got the confidence to stand up and talk to a crowd. It's do you think first before doing, or do you react first and then think. That is a problem that any out-of-the-box suggestion is going to be up against. A cohesive bunch of hot-heads.

The Four Colours Test, a.k.a. Hartman Personality Profile, says that to get your message across, you need to adapt how you speak, to how they listen. If your project involves getting students to spend weeks in a midge-infested swamp counting voles, investing time in the Four Colours Test may help convince them.

Blue-Sky thinking might be better kept secret until it generates a viable action-plan with a clear business outcome. An evidence-based obvious decision with a PowerPoint presentation is more persuasive to reach a business goal, than discussing it at the ill-defined blue sky stage. At any stage you may be talking to different personality types. Shouty individuals might not want shared goals to succeed, unless the applause is for them. Believing in team work and mutual benefit is naive, because human behaviour includes those fixated on status, their own, or giving support to the winner. Compelling reasons will not persuade them and you are wasting time trying. For them it is about their goals, to which you and your ideas may be a threat. If your logic wins, if may be because they fear being the outsider if everyone else is in agreement. You'll have made enemies without knowing it. Meanwhile the boss, who has emotional intelligence, will make safe decisions which go with the socially threatening people. Rather than the right decision that is logical and evidence-based. Even Socrates had issues with democracy.

This research project is therefore to engage with a subject and explore it further. To see if there are any angles which would be acceptable and could be presented to other less-enlightened thinkers. This real business goal presents an opportunity to test how to do that. It is not the subject matter of whether Fluffy the Great White, who to be honest has only eaten half of one boat, and most of the crew survived, more-or-less intact, is a serious threat to shipping. It's about filling hotel rooms. Or hospital beds. Either will enhance the economy. For us though, it's about how the process works.

The plan is to send out business cards, letters or e-mails, inviting people to fill in a survey or share ideas about some contentious issue. The URL will include extra letters which make it unlikely that the site can be found by angry or reactive people who might benefit more from a link to a more kinetic experience. If it gets bombarded, it's easy to provide a different PinTail.