Saturday, May 8, 2010

The Two Minute Drill...PLUS

The reaction from the Two Minute Drill was pretty dramatic. I got dozens of emails and even some phone calls from people that were surprised at the experience that they had.

It became clear that when you stop to listen and understand the other person’s perspective, without prejudging or filtering their statements through your OWN perspective, they know it. They feel as if they are heard and often that opens them to YOUR perspective. This activity sets the stage for real collaboration.

Let’s add on to the experience now. This week, do the two minute drill again – listen to the other person’s point of view for two minutes. Don’t think about your own. Pretend you are a reporter and your purpose is just to understand exactly where the other person is coming from. Ask them questions about how they arrived at any conclusions that you don’t understand. You will be saying things like “what makes you say that?”, “tell me more about…”, and “how do you know that such-and-such is true”. It is important to ask these from a position of curiosity and not argumentativeness. This is difficult for almost all of us without practice.

So…practice!

This week, add the element of openness. Try to be open to adopting their position IF (and only if) you can come to agree with it. Ask the questions you need to understand how their perspective “works” and determine if it is all that different from yours, and if the differences matter. IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU CHANGE YOUR MIND OR NOT, SO LONG AS YOU DO IT FOR THE RIGHT REASON.

When I hear new information about a subject upon which I have already taken a position, sometimes I change my mind. What do YOU do?

Insist on great business results! Go to Pathfinder Communication

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