“Within this thin wafer of bread is caught up symbolically the
labor of plow and of sowing, of harvest and threshing, of
milling, of packing, of transportation, of financing, of selling
and packaging. Man’s industrial life is all there.”
Wilford O Cross, Prologue to Ethics
H
ow often have you heard someone say “But I’ve
told you this already!” when you have not
understood, remembered, learned, or acted on
something that was said? How often have you blamed the
other person in these circumstances?
If we want to get our message through and maintain
long-term collaborations and partnerships, we need to
understand the strategies of the people with whom we are
dealing. Their ways of learning, understanding, and
remembering may be very different from our own. If we
think someone has understood just because we have told
them something, we can be in for a big surprise, for
example, if we find out that an essential part of their
strategy for understanding relies on their seeing what we
are saying as opposed to being told.
And when we do begin to discover what others need
from us, we need the flexibility to respond in ways that
they recognize. This does not mean that we have to
compromise who we are; we can be true to our values yet
develop the flexibility to demonstrate those values in ways
that generate cooperation and respect.
We need the flexibility to
respond in ways others
recognize