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Home > All site sections > HR blogs and comment > HR blogs > Specialists' blog

Don’t read this blog – it’s boring

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Peter Honey

8 Dec 2011 | 17:18

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I’m intrigued by the idea of organising a conference that deliberately sets out to be boring. Apparently when James Ward staged his Boring 2011 conference in London recently, it was a sell-out. There were sessions on bar codes, electric hand dryers, the first ten years of Which? magazine and Budgens - Crouch End. However, according to the reports I have read, the conference was a failure because it wasn’t boring! However hard the speakers tried, the audience paid rapt attention to their every word and even laughed at their jokes.

Perhaps blatantly advertising in advance that something is going to be boring, is the way to ensure that it isn’t. If I had gone to James Ward’s conference, I’d be stubbornly determined not to be bored and, the harder someone tried to bore me, the more resistant I’d become. There must be a lesson here for every conference organiser; promise it’s going to be boring and it won’t be!

I wonder whether anything is inherently boring? When you feel bored does it mean that the subject or person (or both) is actually boring? Haven’t you noticed that things you don’t find interesting always, without exception, have devotees? For example, I’m not at all interested in German Lieder but Wigmore Hall is regularly packed with people who happily pay to listen to it and applaud each rendition with genuine enthusiasm (I know because my wife loves it).

I have been to plenty of meetings and conferences where I have succumbed to feelings of boredom (on occasions I have even fallen asleep!), but I have always assumed I brought this upon myself by lowering my guard and failing to be purposeful. When I attend a conference determined to learn something new and/or to identify a couple of useful actions, my resolve keeps any feelings of boredom at bay.

One of my grandchildren often says he’s bored, the implication being that I am to blame. What he is really saying is; ‘you are boring me’. This, of course, is regrettable; I would much prefer that he was fascinated by reminiscences about my schooldays in the 1950s, in the days of chalk and blackboards, where we learnt our times tables by heart and were caned if we were caught not wearing our school caps in town. Absolutely riveting stuff - as I’m sure you agree. Anyway, when my grandson tells me he is bored, I remind myself (not him, that would be too much!) that he has to learn to take responsibility for his feelings and that if he is bored it doesn’t follow that I am boring. So, I simply say, ‘Oh dear. What are you going to do about it?’. This, by the way, is such an infuriating thing to be asked, especially by the person you are convinced is boring you, that any feelings of boredom instantly evaporate. Works like a charm.

My conclusion is this; you might feel bored, but nothing is boring. Not even this blog! Fancy joining me to watch some paint dry?

Comments

1. At 13:26 on 09 Dec 2011, Sarah Diamond wrote:

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2. At 14:22 on 09 Dec 2011, Jana Cieskova wrote:

Dear Peter,

I must say I really enjoyed reading your blog, it made me smile on the refletion how we all feel from time to time. However, I believe that knowing how to get peoples attention is art that we need to learn. Even the most boring subject can be presented in a way that evokes peoples interest. Only few of us are interested in all the subjects we have to learn at school but when you have a teacher who knows how to 'sell it', suddenly even the most boring subject can be enjoyable. So lets make some effort not to bore our audience.
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3. At 10:32 on 12 Dec 2011, Mara Thorne wrote:

It seems to me there are two aspects to boredom: the topic and the way it is presented. Some people can make even the least promising topics interesting by the manner of delivery; others take something that should be interesting and by virtue of monotone delivery manage to bore the audience to death. Hence the inspirational teachers we remember long after the other sort have faded from memory. I've heard you speak, Peter, and you are never boring!
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