Fake apologies

The content of an apology is only half the battle. The delivery matters as well. If you mumble, avert eye contact, or stand in the corner with your arms crossed, it won’t matter what you say. 

No matter how much damage was done, a sincere apology restores faith.

Saying you’re sorry is uncomfortable. It can be hard to admit your shortcomings and acknowledge your mistakes. But taking responsibility is the key to restoring trust.

• It fails to take into consideration all the available information
• It presents information in a misleading way.
• It might lead to improper analysis and might cause someone to paint a misleading picture of a certain outcome.

Also referred to as Bernoulli’s maxim, it states that, when assessing the probability that a certain hypothesis is true, we must take into account all the available information.

A good apology takes two people: the giver and the receiver. An apology that heals is based on kindness, generosity, and compassion. 

The recipient accepts it with grace and, in turn, offers forgiveness. Without forgiveness, it cannot heal.

• Repair: An apology that rebuilds intimacy should have three parts: you need to own the mistake, and then you need to repair the damage. Lastly, you need to vow to improve.
• Forgive:  If you have been hurt, you may never completely forget, but you can choose to forgive. To decide to forgive means that you don't relive something that belongs to the past.
• Begin again: Unfinished business will accumulate. Let go of the small and the large wounds, so they don't pile up. 

Start by asking each person to come up with two facts about themselves and one believable fib. Next, everyone shares their three statements and the group votes or discusses their guess for the lie. 

This icebreaker is a great way to get to know each other and to have some laughs along the way.

1. Pass out different colored sheets of paper to each person attending the meeting.
2. Ask everyone to write an interesting fact about themselves on the piece of paper and fold it into a paper airplane.
3. Everyone launches their paper airplane to somewhere around the room.
4. Everyone retrieves one of the paper airplanes, reads the fact, and guesses whose paper airplane they got.

In this fallacy, someone behaves in a way that negatively affects others but then gets upset when others criticize their behavior. They will reply with a "mind your own business."
For instance, someone who doesn't see a reason to bathe, but then boards a full 10-hour flight.

It happens when someone continues in a course of action, even if evidence shows that it's a mistake.

Common phrase: "We've always done it this way, so we'll keep doing it this way." "I've already invested so much..."

An analytical communicator loves hard data, numbers, and specific language. 

They're usually wary of people who deal in vague language and strictly blue-sky ideas and get drained quickly when conversations move from logical to emotional.

Dos:

• Provide as much detail upfront as possible
• Set clear expectations
• Give them space to work independently

Don'ts:

• Turning the conversation emotional;
• Framing feedback on their work as criticism.

Most writing mistakes are widespread, but good writers just get better at spotting them. Some things you'll learn to watch for are:

• Overuse of jargon and business-speak, like "utilize" or "endeavor" instead of "use" or "try."
• Clichés are stale phrases that have lost their impact and novelty through overuse. If you are used to seeing it in print, don't use it.
• The passive voice. The subject of the sentence should be the person or thing taking action, not the thing being acted on. "Harry wrote this article," is better than "This article was written by Harry."
• Rambling. When you are not sure what you want to say, it is easy to phrase it in three or four different ways. A single concise sentence is generally better.

When you write something, you get very close to it. It is nearly impossible to distance yourself from it straight away to edit properly.

The longer you can leave a draft before editing, the better. Half an hour to two days is enough of a break to edit well. When you do edit, read your work out loud. You'll catch more problems and get a better feel for how everything flows.

That doesn’t mean they are made of 100% whole grains. All 3 components (endosperm, germ, and bran) of a grain must be present for it to be classified as a whole grain.

It’s made by adding bacteria to milk, which can soothe several gastrointestinal ailments. But highly sweetened yogurts are like candy in a container instead of a valuable dose of dairy.

Opt for Greek yogurt, which is thicker in texture, and also contains double the amount of protein and less sugar than most yogurts.  

Showing empathy will lower the temperature of the debate and allow both of you to come to a resolution.

If you appear to be giving the other side’s position a thoughtful review, then the solution you propose will seem to be far more sensible. Furthermore, your opponent may come to your side without you having to do anything other than listening.