Ground Rules Teleclass Series - Ground Rule 6

I often work with groups where conversations sound like a series of monologues. One person speaks, the next person speaks, then the next person speaks, and I'm hard pressed to identify the links between each person's thoughts. Others remain silent, and nobody asks them what they're thinking. Still others ask lots of questions, and don't explain why. People get frustrated, confused, or tune out, and the quality of the group's work eventually suffers. Ever been in one of these conversations?

All these approaches to making statements and asking questions are counterproductive. Just making statements or just asking questions makes people defensive. Also, if you just make statements, participants don't really learn how others see your ideas, and ifyou just ask questions, the group doesn't get the benefit ofyour learning.

This ground rule outlines an approach to statements and questions that creates a dialogue. Valuable information gets out because people are saying what they think, including their reasoning, and asking genuinely curious questions about what people's reactions are. Trust goes up because people are expressing genuine curiosity about each other's views instead of trying to convince each other.

I'll show you how to use this ground rule to get better results with other people. Doing so requires you change the way you view your world – it requires you balance your passion with an equal amount of curiosity. This is simple and not easy. The rewards will often exceed your expectations.

• How to keep a conversation focused
• How to quickly identify concerns with any idea or solution
• How to share particularly difficult information and reduce defensive reactions
• How to get candid, difficult feedback that you wouldn't ordinarily get
  

Your stories, opportunities and challenges will be the practice field. I'll share some key concepts – mostly via advance reading – and we'll quickly move into "clinic" mode, where we work together to make the material practical and meaningful for you.

We'll do all this in a fast-paced, focused way, and the class will be highly interactive. We're limiting participation to ensure this, and the teleclass will be an hour long.

There will be a short written assignment beforehand, as well as some prereading. This will help us focus, in the call, on your learning and your real situations.

If you can't attend, you can purchase a recording of the entire class. If you choose this option, you will still receive all the supporting materials and assignments.

If you are still reading, I think you'll find the teleclass quite valuable. I invite you to participate.

• The advance assignment and course materials to help you get the most out of the teleclass.
• The dial-in information for the teleclass (if you're participating live)
• The digital recording of the teleclass. We will send you a link to download it (or, if you need it, ship you a CD recording), along with the materials above.
• The complete transcript of the call, if purchased.

If you think this teleclass is what you're looking for, I invite you to join in right here.

I encourage you to sign up for the entire Ground Rules teleclass series to maximize your learning; when used together, these groundrules are much more powerful than they are on their own.