Thursday, July 10, 2014

Conversation going nowhere


Sometimes, a conversation -- or, if you like, a communication or collaboration -- actually goes nowhere and just takes up time and space. All talk, no action...

There's no news there; anyone and everyone can make that observation -- and probably has.

Fair enough, so what's new to know about this?

Perhaps, this framework, given to us by Sirini Pillay
  • Beware the illusionist: a talker -- these days, a text'er or email'er -- who really has no intention of action. Actually, these people acquire a reputation for illusion so they are less a threat to progress than you might imagine, since people work around them
  • Beware of compassion and sensitivity: Emote according to circumstances; these emotions often don't work well in business-business negotiations, to take one case. A hard edge may work a lot better
  • Beware delusional consensus: A cousin of group think, wherein, during the conversation, everyone seems to buy in and go along, but back in the day-to-day: No way! and no action is taken. All kinds of anecdotes have been proposed over the years, like active listening, flow-down strategies, scorecards, and other "skin in the game" notions.


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