And/ But

In term 2 (Part 1) there was a week-long course in Project Management. A whole of the week was devoted for studying Project Management. We were involved in simulations and theoretical studies including risk analysis, programme management and project planning and execution.

It was another amazing experience especially with one of the most enthusiastic and interesting lecturers of Cranfield: Stephen Carver. Steve has also been teaching us about the presentation skills and communication skills. One cannot afford to miss him when he is around. He has an extensive industry (oil and gas) experience and is still involved in providing consultancy.

The best learning for me out of the course was: ‘replacement of BUT with AND’. We were told by one of the faculty that it would be lot better and easier to work in teams especially while executing projects, if we could replace ‘but’ with ‘and’. When I thought in retrospection, I found that it really means a lot when you start your sentence with ‘and’ instead of ‘but’ which usually gives a negative meaning. After that I have always made it a point to minimise the use of ‘but’ in my conversation. Thanks John (Algar) for this wonderful tip.