Is it possible that we’ve created a working environment where countless distractions and trivial pursuits guarantee that we get less done—with increasing effort—each passing day? Recent research illuminates our contemporary struggle to harness our precious attention in an age of distraction and points toward a solution.
Key Rules for Effective Conversational Containment
Not only is this consulting free, it is meaningful.
Here are four tips to get you started on building your containment muscle. For a discussion of why containment matters, refer to Keep Conversations from Escalating.
They Asymmetry of Human Communication
The fundamental asymmetry of human communication is this: Building good relationships takes time, but damaging them doesn’t.
The type of strong, thriving, and enriching relationships that we all desire can only be built slowly, over weeks and months and years. But we can seriously damage the very same relationships in seconds with ill-advised or emotionally charged words.
Because of this asymmetry, we should approach human communication with the utmost care and reverence. There is nothing more precious than our closest relationships. And we build, protect, and maintain our closest relationships through our communication.
Keep Conversations From Escalating
The communication skill to learn before any other is containment.
Containment is the ability to prevent issues, problems, and challenges from escalating unnecessarily. And escalation is a grave relational threat that lurks just around the corner in almost every interaction.