And what does that mean to you?
The problem with most communication is the illusion that it has occurred.
--George Bernard Shaw
Sometimes I wonder how we ever understand each other at all.
When I started my coach training almost ten years ago, I had to break one of my default habits, which was to assume I knew exactly what someone was talking about and where they were going with their thinking.
While I DO have an uncanny knack to deeply hear and understand others, that presumptive default often led to me skipping over the part where I ask THEM to expand on what they were saying. And occasionally, I would be completely wrong in my assumptions.
And so I learned these magic, if seemingly simple, words: And what does that mean to you?
Because so many times we believe we have a common, shared understanding of the words, phrases and descriptors we use. And while we can usually successfully convey what we are trying to say, there are often subtle nuances that make shared language mean different things to the speaker and the listener.
Many times, how we interpret another is through our own lens, our own understanding, our own history and relationship to an idea or perspective, and not actually what they are trying to convey.
But this easy phrase can help us move one step closer to each other.
So…what does all THIS mean to YOU?
