Pay Attention to Casualties of War
You don’t understand, if you won’t understand.
In the late 90s I had a professional development firm in Germany that specialized in teaching business executives and personnel how to effectively communicate in English across various cultures for international commercial relations.
Not only did I need to have a deep understanding of the English language and the unique jargon associated with each of the industries I served, but I also needed to understand people.
Depending on where my clients lived, where they grew up, what roles they had at work and also at home, who and what they needed to communicate in English for, and what experience and education they already had with English all played a part in the development of the curriculum and instruction they would receive.
The entire human experience had to be taken into account for reverse engineering their desired results.
Something I taught my more advanced students and instilled in each of my trainers is that every time you speak, you are essentially engaging in a negotiation.
You have to be dialed into the broadcasting station of your communication partner(s).
If you can’t capture and keep the attention of your communication partner(s), you’ve lost.
If you don’t understand the motivations, values, or commitments of your communication partner(s), you’ve lost.
The better you know your audience and what they need from you to feel comforted and complete, the better you can deliver an all around win.
In law enforcement and crisis management situations things can get very ugly, very quickly. There’s little room for apathy or error.
The WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) broadcast stations are always blaring.
It’s the quiet cues and clues which most people miss that can help an astute observer or participant predict outcomes.
Just because something seems reasonable to the masses — majority or minority — any masses — doesn’t mean that it is.
When you understand the position of a counterpart and where their behavior genuinely stems from, you have leverage. To an extent.
When you join in on narratives that excuse or abuse, excite or incite, we all lose.
It’s heartbreaking that we live in a world that still uses people as pawns.
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