July 31, 2010Finding the smarter ground: @josephgrenny political discussions don’t have to be hostile.
One of the most crucial conversations we can have is about politics. A Crucial Conversations reader asked about how to handle those conversations when the other person is hostile and aggressive.
Joseph Grenny gave a great response, in which he told a tale of an exchange he had. It was between himself and a London cab driver who was vocal about being Anti-American.
“Hey, my friend. May I ask you a question?”
He looked into the rear view mirror and paused. “Sure. This is your taxi at the moment.”
“You know, I am from the U.S. and don’t get as much contact as I’d like with people who have a whole different experience than I do. I am very interested in hearing your views. And I may agree with some of them but disagree with others. Are you interested in mine, too, or should I just hear you out?”
“Oh, no,” he practically crooned. “I want a debate!”
“Okay, then how about this. You take the first five minutes and then I get the next five. At the end, I don’t care if we both agree on everything or not, but I’m guessing we might both be a little smarter. How is that?”
He laughed heartily, turned to face me full on and said, “You are a strange man. But that is a deal.”
The post is full of great advice about how to turn a rant into a dialogue. There is one point I challenge, however. The questioner observes that there is no middle ground and Grenny titles the post “finding the middle ground.” It not a middle ground we’re looking for, it’s clearer ground. I love the way Grenny says if they both talk and listen, they’ll both come out smarter.
Maybe he should have titled it “Finding the Smarter Ground”
No Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
