Conversations

I had the incredible luck to attend Inspire 2014  and listen to an amazing talk by PR specialist and author Jim Hoggan. His talk dealt with communicating in today’s world where no one trusts anyone like they used to. He was explaining in his message how it is important to have the right conversations with people. I would like to list some of the important takeaways from his talk and discuss them further here.

1. People arrive at conclusions very quickly in today’s world due to the over exposure to all forms of media, surrounding and vested interests.
2. Once they have framed an opinion, they follow a downward pyramid of self justification.
3. People don’t like being told what is right and wrong especially since they have arrived at an opinion.
4. Most of the time people arrive at an opinion because they always listen to people who knows what the hell they are speaking about.
5. Even when you lay out facts in front of people, they wouldn’t like to change their opinion and would stubbornly not do so.

I again had the incredible luck to experience this first hand recently and I learnt how important it is for one to be nimble and adept at the art of having heartfelt communications. In today’s world, people are going to be suspicious if you are going to be seen as too nice and also (definitely) when you are seen as too bad for their liking. There are certain rules of communication, which I was able to understand from Jim Hoggan, such as:

1. Communication is a conversation. It is not a dialogue or a monologue.
2. You have to be empathetic to the fact that the person listening to you have all the right to frame an opinion good or bad about you.
3. Once they form an opinion, you cannot make them change that opinion and they will be virulent in defending that opinion.
4. The conversations from then on should be directed at how to ensure that the right thing is done, because the outcome from any partnership should be at,
5. Doing the right thing. Always do the right thing or be seen doing the right thing for that partnership or friendship. Make sure you don’t confuse them up.