Conversation

The art of conversation seems to be dying from my perspective. All I see is people talking, using words strung together in some monologue that is so coloured with bias that one could call it a rainbow - it’s supposed to be pretty and that’s all it is; there is nothing of substance. There is no room for an exchange of ideas, no room to take a journey down the rabbit hole to wonderland on some connected idea never knowing where the discussion will take you. Every monologue seems to be made from a point of view that the speaker is the only one that is right. Invariably it happens that the speaker is also the loudest. 

It’s not just in small social situations that I see this but also in daily business life and if one wants to see it you could also see it in the way politicians are behaving today. Every monologue delivered seems like it’s a mechanism for the speaker to checkmate the listener in some imaginary game of theirs. I guess to a certain extent the folks that keep quiet are to blame too; they are the ones that are afraid to talk for the sole reason that they are scared that their own biases might colour their speech and that in turn makes them angry of having to censor themselves which ultimately causes them to keep quite. Of course to have a conversation one needs to be open to listening to other ideas and not shut down what is put forth without merit. To be able to do that one be a good listener.

Next time you are out in a social situation look and see and you might just see, a bunch of people cutting each other off to have the last word in something that looks out of the cartoons of yesteryear. 

I have been guilty of cutting people off mid sentence and at times still do. It a trait that is annoying to say the least because the minute I do it I know that I have stopped listening and the other person is for sure going to get defensive and the chances of a good conversation are as good as lost. It takes effort to  salvage and ensure that the meeting ends with everyone feeling that it was a good conversation. 

Listen, share, empathise, relate, present your idea and repeat - simple steps to having a good conversation. 

C