1. Every Friday telex is the same! (Its meant to keep the troops "motivated" [aka a bit nervous]).
It opens with a good paragraph, adds 2 negative paragraphs, then as positive.....The only variable is the 1st paragraph. If "the sky is falling" the 1st paragraph maybe negative. I havent paid enough attention but I wouldnt be surprised if it was always the '2nd Friday after Annual Results.'
2. The Senior CC are treading cautiously because '
someone' started the rumour that there was no Profit Share because 'all the money' was required to backpay the CC after their court case.
Remember the letter from Pers? "We will recover the costs of the legal action....yadda, yadda"
3. Another good text for leadership/management Hitlers book, 'Mein Kampf". Although Im sure PC isnt deliberately using this 'technique', I am sure you can see the effects it is having upon the groundstaff?
They do think the sky is falling.
"The Big Lie"
Hitler believed in telling a lie so "colossal" that no one would believe he "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".
His techniques? Never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
Direct translation from Mein Kampf:
"In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation."
Caveat: Im in no way implying that the Friday Telex is related in anyway to Mein Kampf! Nor am I comparing Hitlers 'big lie' to the current cost of Jet A1! I am simply highlighting that 'leadership' and 'management' use some of the same techniques the world over, irrespective of the size of the issues at hand. You might therefore summarise the Friday Telex as "Informative Propaganda"?..
*Sp error (their/there) in the title. I cant edit it.
Mien Kampf translation from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Lie