Tuesday, September 8, 1998

Common ground

Do you know any person who is perfectly right all the time? The fact is, no one is ever completely right or completely wrong all the time. I’m certainly not. You are not. The people in your life are not.

It helps to keep this in mind as we relate to one another. We all make mistakes. We all have brilliant moments of insight. And normally, we all fall somewhere in between those two extremes.

As such, we must strive to understand before we attempt to judge. There is always something of value to be found in any opinion or perspective. Yet when we dismiss it out of hand, without even attempting to understand it, we never find that value.

A powerful strategy for effective communication is to first understand the other person. You must go beyond superficial judgments to find something of value with which you can identify and relate. You’ll never completely agree on everything, yet you can almost always find useful and valuable common ground.

— Ralph Marston

You can do it       Consider

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