You can’t solve a problem if you don’t open your mind, heart and your ears 👂🏻.
I’ve observed that in most conflicts and dysfunctional interactions, true listening is not practiced.
Everyone wants to have a say.
Everyone has an opinion that MUST be aired.
Everyone believes they are right.
These sorts of encounters are rarely productive as the Egos fight it out in the form of sarcastic throwaways, barbed remarks, underhanded comments dunked in passive aggression.
This sort of environment is not fun.
What is _FUN_ is when we get functional conflict, where participants listen with attentiveness and respect, before lobbing their opinions playfully in the fray – knowing that healthy conflict in a safe environment creates forward motion for the collective team.
When things start to heat up, take a breath.
Calm the urge to charge in and make your thoughts known.
Yes – you want to be heard.
But really, so does everyone else.
Perhaps the cycle can be broken with you.
You can begin by taking the moment to let others speak first.
Listen carefully, attentively.
Replay what you’ve heard.
And then you can share your thoughts on the matter.
On the axis of Self vs Others dimension within Active Listening, we should always be biased towards the Others.
That’s the only way to open doors and take the right first step towards Effective Problem Solving.
