How To Overcome Negativity in the Workplace, vol. 1 - 4 1997
Distributed by CareerTrack, Inc., 3085 Center Green Dr., Boulder, CO 80301-5408; 303-440-7440
Produced by CareerTrack
Director n/a
VHS, color, 4 videos, 50 min. each
College - Adult
Business
Date Entered: 11/09/2018
Reviewed by Scott Smith, Lorette Wilmot Library, Nazareth College, Rochester, NY- Vol. 1: Protecting Yourself from Pessimism, 1 hr. 17 min.
- Vol. 2: Stopping the Spread of Negativity, 1 hr. 4 min.
- Vol. 3: Proactive Approaches for Positive Results, 1 hr. 2 min.
- Vol. 4: Creating an Optimistic Organization, 1 hr. 12 min.
Boy, there's a lot of negativity out there and I'm not convinced that this set is going to change that. Perhaps there's just too many infomercials and too much Oprah, Jerry, Maury, Sally out there on the airwaves and clogging up the cable signal. Maybe it's that the meticulously scripted "spontaneous" walks into the audience of a certain Republican presidential hopeful have sent up a big red cross, I mean red flag, to alert my already strained sense of credulity. Or maybe I'm just being negative. (Say, could there be a reason that the editor of MCJ sent me this series to review? Nah.) The format of this series of four videotapes, in which the author/speaker (in this case Lani Arredondo) presents some information to an "audience" and takes their comments is no longer either fresh or effective . Of course none of the members of the audience (as representative a cross section of business America as you could hope to find) are in the least inarticulate and none disagree with Ms. Arredondo's points, in fact, a string of them usually can be depended upon to independently parrot them back in the same order that she originally presented them. Many of these interactions are preceded by a vignette in which, well, I'll call them actors for want of a better term, play out group dynamics as employees of a fictional firm in order to illustrate Ms. Arredondo's current point.
It really is too bad because Lani Arredondo does come across as knowledgeable and concerned about negativity and its consequences, not only to the work organization but also upon the individual. I feel that I would have gotten far more if Ms. Arredondo had been allowed to simply share her obvious knowledge and techniques directly with the viewer, perhaps interviewing a few people in-depth, than I did from this series. The artificiality and staging of the production made it seem so phony that I was disengaged from the information that was provided. Not recommended.