What comes to your mind when you hear or come across the words “civil discourse''? Many people will argue that it means speaking in a civilized manner with people. And some will fall into the trap of thinking civil discourse is only with like minds. When there are differences between people who …
Listening Skills Articles and Interviews (tag)
Why We Can’t Hear Our Clients — 3 Ways to Fix the Problem before It’s too Late
I’m often asked how my work as a couple’s counselor prepared me for working with agencies. There’s no question that agencies and clients are in an entirely different relationship than domestic partners, but there are some common blind spots — and one big one is how we hear each other, and how we …
Develop an “Otherness” Mindset: 4 Effective Strategies to Engage Your Customers
In a 1921 article for Vanity Fair, Robert Benchley observed that there are two classes of people: those who divide people into two classes and those who do not. From my vantage point, people can be divided into those who understand and practice “otherness” and those that do not. When I use the …
Everyone’s Talking. No One’s Listening
In our daily conversations, people tend to talk around a subject and not actually to each other. When we talk “at” each other as opposed to “with” to each other in professional settings, it puts us in our own head and keeps us from focusing on what someone else has to say. Instead of creating a …
