Today's post comes courtesy Seth Godin's blog. He usually writes about marketing and business stuff - which most people think are boring - but I HAD to show all of you this post. His post is a tangent of a mentality that I was introduced to at my other company: to think as an ally.
I have a tendency to get very impatient with people that do not immediately see my point of view like I do, or at least give a good explanation as to why they are dissenting. Thinking, and problem-solving, as an ally really took a lot of that frustration out of the equation for me, and got to the issue at hand - so we could focus on THE SAME facts and data, so I could explain my position even further (my worldview), as could my counterpart (their worldview), and get to a resolution even faster.
Try it for a day - when you are in difficult situation today, put yourself in their shoes, explain what they are not understanding, listen, and think as an ally.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Your difficult boss, customer, prospect, voter, student... probably not stupid, probably just uninformed. There's a huge difference.
Every person makes decisions based on their worldview and the data at hand. If two people have the same worldview and the same data, they'll make the same decision, every time (unless they're stupid.)
The easiest way to grow is to sell to people who share a worldview that endorses your position. The most effective way to grow bigger than that is to inform those that disagree with your position--more data in a palatable form. And, unfortunately, it turns out that the best way to change the world is to open the closed-minded.
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