The Shower, the Course and the Thought Bubble

This cute little book is written by London born and Australian based business trainer and human development organiser, Rum Charles. Currently the PR manager of Nintendo Australia, Charles has also worked with big-name musical acts such as Madonna, Guns N’ Roses and Paul McCartney.  
Following on from such big sellers as Who Moved My Cheese and The One Minute Manager, Charles uses entertainment to deliver client-focused training and marketing solutions to his book. 
The idea for The Shower, the Course and the Thought Bubble, described as a communication tool, came to Charles while in the shower. The story introduces us to and takes us through the EQUAL philosophy which has been at the core of each Indigo Training (the company he founded) programme for the past 13 years. It gives simple guidelines to help deal with communication situations in everyday life, setting out five steps to teach the art of effective communication.  
“Communication is at the core of almost every daily activity, so it’s important we know how to do it effectively,” Charles stresses.   
The book explains how the EQUAL (stands for Empathy, Questions, Understanding, Action and Lead) idea took shape during a customer service course, as boredom was setting in.
The book’s characters are represented by an aspect of their personality, rather than a name. For example, Broad Grin One and Broad Grin Two, who team up early in the course, will appeal to Gen Ys, with their wry humour and understanding of the subtleties of modern life. Gen Xs are also represented in a humorous manner through Eighties Man – the character that people love to hate. Baby Boomers will relate to one simply known as The Voice. Together these characters dig into the universality of this catchy acronym and discover how it can help all of us.
Each part of the book, there are six in total, tackles an EQUAL letter, finishing with a ‘note to readers’ explanation.   
Charles reminds us that when we ask a question, we must not speak again, but wait to hear the answer. He also offers a handful of notes throughout to explain a word – and there is a list of words to begin open questions and another list for closed questions. 
The media information supplied by the book’s publisher suggests that this six part self-help illustrated story can be read in just an hour – this fact should appeal to many busy business owners.
To sum up, The Shower, the Course and the Thought Bubble is a light, easy read – not taking long but definitely with long term impact. It’s a book that provides much to talk about and ponder on – and its wisdom deserves to be applied on a daily basis.

Usefulness: 7.5/10
ISBN: 978-19212-21941

Linda Donald is an Auckland-based freelance writer and book reviewer. Email[email protected] or visit www.imagesandwords.co.nz

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