Different conversations require different contexts
There is the Daring Ask – which, if we have done the background work, is direct, clear and shameless. An excellent Daring Ask is a transmission, seeded from the place of knowing that what you are asking for is in service to something greater than you.
There is the Threshing Floor – where we are unclear and need a space with witnesses to listen, synthesize, objectify, inquire – as to the threads that are seeking to find coherence and clarity
There is the Conversation for Understanding – where the impulse is to understand as fully as possible the other person’s world view and experience.
There is the Speak the Truth – where we dare to care enough about the other to deliver feedback, observation and disclosure in a way that edifies the other.
There is a transactional conversation, much needed when we are giving directions or instruction requiring precision.
There is the Synergistic Audit – where we share what we have the capacity, willingness and desire to bring to a project, relationship, partnership, community, enterprise….and for this sharing, what we expect in return.
There is the student-teacher, which, if functioning correctly, regularly flips so the teacher becomes the student.
The BMW session – Bitch, moan and winge….this is a clearly bounded space for us to seek to download unedited frustration, anger, venting…we ask a witness to hold the space for us for a set amount of time…simply to listen, no problem solving, no fixing, no questions…just the space to witness. We get to be judgemental, ugly, spiteful, frustrated, angry, heated, unhappy, dismayed…simply to move the emotion through us.
Each of these conversations requires a different context, a different container.
If we want to become better communicators, we might set the stage for the conversation we most need to have. Or that most needs to be had.
Similar to preparing soil for planting, or a stage for storytelling, setting context enables those participating in the conversation to know the conversation they are in.
*All of these conversations form part of the framework of Syntropic World and the application of the Trust Manifesto
Photo taken August 16th 2021
