Emily Chamlee-Wright discusses the principles of great conversations: humility, critical thinking, and sympathetic listening.
Three great rules for great conversations, and not easy to follow.
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- Humility: Get some techies or geeks together talking shop/their field of geekdom, and sit back and watch one-ups-manship on steroids. Most of us want to show others how smart we are. I know I do. Dropping that and listening with humility opens up the doors of discovery.
- Critical thinking: While it is sometimes important to point out the illogical or simply wrong comments of another person, all too often it is a conversation stopper and an argument starter. As I age I found myself less inclined to do so. In all likelihood I am not changing their opinion anyway. If they are wrong on a factual matter, why embarrass them. However, it does make me think of the young lady in Ecuador with whom I have visited via Skype for years for Spanish conversational practice. At times I think she is playing Devil’s Advocate to keep the conversation going. Other times I think it is just her personality. If I say the sky is blue. She will say it depends on the time of day, weather conditions, etc. No silly I mean right now. She reminds of a certain Springdale resident in this regard.
- Sympathetic listening: This is the key. Do this and the others follow. It is something I strive for, but my own need to interject all too often gets in the way.
Practice, practice, practice… poco, poco llegamos a la meta.
Enough of my silly two cents, the video follows: