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thinks, stop right there. If the information is crucial to the decision, verify it. Make a phone call or postpone the discussion until such relayed information can be verified. |
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Tip 415: Present your proposal only one way and be specific. |
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When you're courting several people with differing viewpoints, it's natural to think that the more general you can make your idea, the more "hooks" you're creating for people to latch onto. In that effort, you tend to explain your idea first one way and then another. You use this analogy and that. You think maybe this and maybe that would be part of the final product. Often, the intention with the elaboration is to offer something that will appeal to everybody. |
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A broad, generally expressed idea, however, usually has the opposite effect: everybody hears something that they disagree with. And you wind up spending more time dealing with the minor details and "what you didn't mean to imply" than you do with the general thrust of the idea. |
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The group has the sense that your proposal has been thrashed to death, when in reality only the chaff around it has been discarded. Prefer, instead, to propose the idea succinctly, in only one, specific way. Let it stand there in all its glory until people force you to add details by their questions. |
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Tip 416: Listen to the counters to your proposal rather than planning your rebuttal. |
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Do you recall presidential debates when candidates seemed to have gone to sleep when their opponent took a turn? The same happens in meetings. Don't get so carried away in preparing to defend your ideas when the next person quits talking that you miss what that person says throughout his or her full turn. If you do, you may find yourself focusing on an issue that the other person has just conceded, failing to respond at all to the new issues raised. You can't take a time-out while the ball is in the other court. You have to stay alert while the other person serves. |
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Tip 417: Don't withdraw your proposal simply for the sake of harmony. |
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Encourage others to express either support or disagreement, but don't let people turn down the idea simply because "someone doesn't like it." Ask for supporting explanation and be sure that everyone either accepts or |
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