Monday, August 28, 2006

Woman's Prerogative

You have heard it most of your life. "It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind". I agree. Unless you apply the definition or "exclusive right" to mean others can't change their mind. It is also a man's prerogative. I have already changed mind today (and it's early). Initially, I spelled prerogative "perogative" but decided to look it up. Eventually, the decision was made to go with the dictionary spelling rather than what "looked right". The most interesting job interview I ever had involved a panel of three folks asking a series of questions that examined the process skills of the applicants rather than content knowledge. For example, two of the questions were "Can you describe a time that you were correct and had to convince someone to accept your perspective?" and "Can you describe a time when you were wrong and someone had to convince you to accept their perspective?" The outcome of the interview was positive in several ways. I did get the promotion. More importantly, a question was planted in my mind that pops up more and more frequently. Whenever there is a disagreement, regardless of the subject, I try to default to this thought process. Am I on the side of truth? Do I need to see this issue from a different perspective? If I am finally convinced that my understanding is correct, is the issue worth persuading the other person? If so, how can that best be done?
That is a challenging process. Especially if I am trying to hold my own in a conversation. To process those thoughts I really have to shut up. The ensuing
silence bothers many folk and is seen by counselor/psychology types as "introverted" behavior. In reality it is an introverted thought process about how to communicate in an extroverted way. It is time to head to work so I will continue this thought process in another post. Allow me to leave with this question; "When was the last time someone changed your mind on and important issue?" If it has been years, we need to talk.

1 comment:

Lerra said...

I've always wondered why prerogative was spelled that way...