Special thanks to Aileen Gibb from her chat on Spotlight on Culture—the Conversation—for inspiring this piece.
Start with Engagement
My take on conversations follow the ABC’s of engagement…Always Be Considerate.
- Align with people
- have an Agenda
- Agree when, where and how
- Acceptance of others and where they are in the moment
- Aim for high impact
- Be present
- Be on time
- Be genuine
- Be engaged
- remember to Connect
- Care about the outcome
- Curiosity creates excellent chatter
- Clarity of purpose
- create Comfort
- Complete the Conversation
Further, in this digital space, planning is critical and if you want to elicit trust, you need to be willing to be venerable. The conversation will create an opportunity to share to learn and involve discovery…who knows what can happen if we allow it to happen naturally.
To learn more about great conversation, check out author Aileen Gibb’s TED talk…
It’s not WHERE you are having the conversation—in person—via phone—virtual—BUT actually having the conversation.
Treat your on-line session like any other gathering, unmute and allow the noise as you would “in person”. Do this by slowing down and remember to breathe – deeply – to allow time to think about the conversation at hand and develop the practice of the “pause”.
Last, but not least, to avoid the zoom fatigue, and add the Human element, visualize that you are all “in the same room” together. Not only can this virtual conversation be just as good as in person, but imagine if it could be even better!
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