Sounds great, doesn't it?

An interesting idea?

But did she really mean it?

You had an idea for our traffic app?

Yes. Well, you know how it tells you

about slow traffic?

Yes.

Well, I thought

we could show how noisy the traffic is.

That's an interesting idea.

We can get new clients

who want a quiet journey.

It's certainly a different approach.

I've put these graphs in

for the different amounts of noise.

I can see that you've

been thinking about this.

Yeah.

Why are you so happy?

Oh, it's Emily, she loves my ideas!

I'm so happy.

I wouldn't be so sure.

What do you mean?

Well, people often use euphemisms

to avoid direct criticism

and to sound polite

words like 'interesting' and 'different'

mean that people can react

without saying anything directly negative.

So it didn't mean that

she really liked the ideas?

I'm afraid not.

How can you tell when someone is doing this?

Ok, people often use adjectives

that could be positive

but aren't always

like

'interesting' or 'different'.

Also, people might use phrases to recognise effort

rather than achievement,

such as "You have really thought about this"

and

"You have worked a lot on this".

Pay attention to tone and body language as well.

Are they saying

"Well, I can see you've been working on that"

or are they saying

"Well, I can see you've been working on that"?

You can see more examples of this kind of feedback

at the end of the programme.

I wonder what it would look like

if she had really liked the ideas.

You had an idea for our traffic app?

Yes. Well, you know how it tells you

about slow traffic?

Yes.

Mark: Well, I thought we could show

how noisy the traffic is.

Wow, that is an interesting idea.

I really like it!

We could get new clients

who want a quiet journey.

That is a really different approach,

it's brilliant!

I've put these graphs in to show

the different amounts of noise.

I can see that you've been thinking about it

and I really like it!