"There is something deep within us that responds to those who level with us, who don't suggest our compromises for us."

It took me a while to wrap my brain around the second half of the quote. The first half is simply "be authentic", but the second half is a bit more subtle. Is it pointing out how one person can inhibit another from being authentic themselves, thus inhibiting a real conversation? I'm going to really consider this idea, because I think I might unwittingly "suggest compromises" to others in an attempt to keep them from feeling uncomfortable when faced with tough questions.

The quote is from Susan Scott's article "Companies, careers, built or lost one conversation at a time". Scott is the author or Fierce Conversations, and Founder and CEO of Fierce, Inc. Her premise is that real, authentic conversations are what's missing in both our work and personal relationships. Scott offers these three questions to get real conversations going:

1. What's the most important thing we should be talking about today?
2. What do we believe is impossible for us to do, that if it were possible, would change everything?
3. If nothing changes, what's likely to happen?

I can only imagine what kind of conversations would have flowed from here in my former place of business. Scott maintains that "When the conversation is real, the change occurs before the conversation is over."

It's not a recent publication, but I will be adding this book to my reading list! It even has an intersection with distributed work... Scott concludes her article with this:

"And don't try to have important conversations via e-mail. The most powerful communications technology any of us will ever have is eye contact. The next is voice. Dead last is words on a page or a screen. "

5:15:28 PM    
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