Understanding Others First

Looking at situations from different perspectives, temporarily suspending your own logic helps build up your skills of “connecting the dots”. This is what we need to do when developing solutions. This is how we are going to innovate our industry.

Its often said that communication is the key to success. Usually people focus on being understood. I’d like to challenge you to listen as intensely as you speak up. In other words, we are naturally driven to make sure we are heard, I’d like you to put in that much effort in understanding someone else’s point.

Figure out a way to make a case for the other point of view, and actively make it in your head. This will help you understand your own idea that much better because you may see benefits of the other option that you had not thought through on your own. Ideas don’t synthesize themselves. The pattern of success develops through an active pursuit of understanding other options to develop your top options.

Committing to understanding of someone else’s objectives, to be able to understand what success looks like – even if the other person struggles with communicating it – is valuable. Being able to summarize what’s most critical quickly helps define you as someone who “gets it”.