I know by the time you wrote this article in South Africa on Madela Day…you’re just done with delivering the Consultancy Skills training, and I really wanted to thank you so much for making that training of a great value to us not only that you introduced us to this new skill through very interactive ways but also for your effort in familirizing us to the various human aspects/behaviours that comes with it.

Finally, I’m very pleased to see the impact of this becoming a habit in our daily lives not just work.

Ahmed El.Sheikh
Leadership Development Manager
Unilever

I was just thinking the other day that what I want to do is recognize and accept completely the uniqueness of every person. By not accepting someone’s uniqueness, I imply that they should be like me or someone else, thereby discounting my own uniqueness as well because if they’re like me, then I’m like them. I believe that I can love everyone, and not necessarily want all of them near me. My goal is to accept them where they are and act responsibly following my own intuition and guidance

Yes. All change is good.

And to your question regarding did I ask him what he meant, he answered: ‘Because I think that sometimes, from some perspectives, change isn’t very good at all’. And, later, in the bar, he agreed that whilst that statement was ‘true’ or ‘correct’ for him, it didn’t really help him in any way at all to have it be true or correct.

Some framing questions: Good to whom? Good how? Good as opposed to what?

And if we have answers to these, do you mean good as desirable in outcome, or in presence? Good as in good now, or good later? Good locally, or in a wider sense?

Just this morning I found myself frustrated by yet another conversation gone horribly wrong when I asked a certain someone if he would reconsider looking at a possible solution to his problem (situation). It’s and old conversation. I know I’m opening up that can of worms again and hoping it hasn’t changed to snakes.

What I find myself feeling after reading this posting is that I do forget that this person feels perfectly right, natural and justified. It doesn’t matter what I would do in his situation. I’m not him. I view him as a “problem person” and thus I dehumanize his experience. Thanks for the reminder that not everyone sees the world the way I do…really? Yes.

* Please dont slam the doors
* Have you done your homework
* You liked carrots last week
* No you cant stay have a small glass of vodka
* What do you mean, you swapped your gameboy for a rock!

Its called conversation and in probably 90% of households it extends and ends here, in a statement of why, how or what as an order and not a chat.

In business the same is true only it changes to wheres the report, your late, and how are we going to hit target!! Perhaps we should all start the same questions and then add……what do you think? It may just change the world.