I do sometimes allow my kinky sense of humour to creep into my work. There’s the slide in my presentation on communication skills that discourages the use of abbreviations, with “S&M” included in the list of examples. And there was that keynote conference speech earlier in the year, which offered witty observations on tactics for leading teams, including the advice to “spare not the rod when necessary”.

At the start of December, I’m running a session with a newly-formed group, and we’ll be doing some team-building work. I’ve just written an exercise that will have them producing neatly-measured documents against the clock – think a manic production line of scissors, paper, staplers and rulers.

Ah, yes. Rulers. You see, part of the game will be that each team member will be given a card describing a secret quirk. And one of said quirks reads:

You have an allergy to wooden rulers.

I wonder if any of them will wince knowingly?

And here’s a really strange thing. Haron and I went shopping yesterday to buy the materials for the event. And could we find wooden rulers anywhere? Not a chance. Have the Health & Safety mob conducted a risk analysis, and decided to protect potential victims? Have crowds of mischievous girls stormed the stationers and cleared the shelves of the threat? (No, can’t be: our Woolworth’s still sells wonderfully-effective plimsolls).

I’m heading off on the long drive south for work later today. Haron’s been set a task in my absence: to locate and purchase six wooden rulers. That’d be the five I need for the event, and one extra…

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