Being 100 percent Responsible

Submitted by Henry Poole on March 6, 2008 - 9:31pm.

I had a great meeting this morning with a couple of my partners and Guy Sengstock. During the meeting, one of the things that we discussed was taking 100% responsibility for how a message (or communication) is received.

I've been thinking about it all day. As I was looking around for quotes on the subject tonight (which I'm still searching for), I ran across this great webpage on communication styles from the Pegasus NLP Newsletter. Here's a great excerpt:

"If I say 'dog' what occurs in your mind? You have a thought or two and this will include an image of a dog. The person sitting next to you will have a different picture of the same dog or a different one. The same occurs if I say the word car, or cooker, or garden. Our internal images will be different - mine from yours and yours from those of others listening to me.

These are all tangibles or concrete words. What if I add abstract words like beautiful, or justice, or improvements? Now the way in which my listeners interpret what I say will differ to an even greater degree.

For example, each person's version of what 'beautiful' means is likely to be very different. Even though we are speaking the same language we are interpreting the words and phrases differently."

If we would all take 100% responsibility for everything, the world would be a much better place. As I ponder this...I hear Gandhi's words "be the change we wish to see in the world". I can only say that I wish I would live that way more myself;)