OFF-MUTE 🔈
💬 Negotiations dictate every facet of our business and personal lives.
🗓️ Recently, there’s been no shortage of them.
👀 Hollywood writers finally made a deal, actors and auto workers continue to strike and our government is days away from a shutdown unless both sides of the aisle can compromise.
🤝 No matter how big or small the conflict is, communicators play a critical role in helping people find common ground. During trying times, we must shift the tide toward hope by educating audiences and creating spaces for real connection. Here’s what we recommend:
☑️ Listen first. Talk second. Come to the conversation — or interaction — with a desire to understand. Empathy will get you everywhere.
☑️ Ask open-ended questions. Start conversations instead of asserting positions. Because audiences — human beings — are innately curious, they are willing to venture deeper inside if we create the right doorways.
☑️ Convene differing points of view. Invite the opposing perspective into the discussion. Help people come to their own conclusions, not the ones you think they should.
☑️ Identify shared goals. Zoom out to the big picture. Find your similarities among your differences. Chances are you share the same end goal and need to align on the best way to get there.
☑️ Offer hope. Stand for what’s good, the solution, instead of what’s wrong. Don’t wield fear.
☑️ Hold yourself accountable. Leaders who do this well are transparent in their actions and clear in their words. When something doesn't work, they speak up. Trust is the glue that holds communities—online and offline—together.
