Both at a psychological and at a political level, we have backgrounds that have emphasised the art of indirectness.

Diplomacy is an art that evolved initially to deal with problems in the relationships between countries.

That said, if there is one generalisation we can hazard about humans in the workplace, it is that they are - first and foremost - tricky: they make too much...

There is a particularly poignant way to be a social disaster, through over-friendliness: a pattern of behaviour driven by the very best of motives which ends up feeling as irritating...