Preparing to be misunderstood

# Chapter 151

Would you like me to give you $50? This is what I could have sworn I heard the lady say to me in the drive-through at Dunkin’ Donuts. Of course she did not say that, and truthfully, I still cannot tell you precisely what she said, but when you don’t hear what you expect to hear it’s pretty hard to understand. I don’t know if you ever have these experiences, but they happen to me regularly. When you hear something that you don’t expect to hear, or something that seems out of context, it’s very difficult to hear it well. Which goes to show that much of our “listening” is nothing more, than the same 1 million trite phrases that we hear and expect to hear all the time.

Real conversation doesn’t happen that way. Granted, communication in the drive-through, it’s not communication or a conversation, it’s just simply a give-and-take, but even that has expected norms of what will be heard and in which order. For example, after I give my order, usually the person will either repeat my order back to me to make sure that they got it correct, or they will tell me how much I owe them, or they will simply tell me to drive around. They will not ask me if I want to get $50!

At least one leadership lesson here is that, if you are planning or intend to say the unexpected, then be prepared to be misunderstood.