Tausi Insider

The most important part of a conversation may not be the actual conversation. It may be the stories in our mind that we bring to the conversation, hampering our contributions and understanding. “In our interactions, we aren’t transmitting and receiving data like TVs and radios – signal sent, signal received. Unlike radio antennas, our reception of others’ words is rarely straightforward because of our big, beautiful, filtering, sense making brain,” consultant and seasoned mediator Chuck Wisner writes in The Art of Conscious Conversations. Of course, the same thing is happening for our conversation partner. “What we say isn’t what someone else heard, and what someone else says isn’t what we hear,” he says. To have a healthy collaborative conversation, we need to hold our stories lightly and learn to ask questions. We need to seek to understand, not being afraid of the collaboration’s dynamic give and take. Conversations are with others, but we need to be aware of the conversation with...