Como você pode ajudar sua equipe a navegar em conversas difíceis com as partes interessadas?

While checking in with yourself on how you perceive the situation and your goals and motivations is important, you can only ever research a person's mind with conversation. Rather than engaging in one-sided research involving more than one mind, it may benefit you to think of questions to ask. If you're prepared about how you feel and you ask questions, a conversation can help build on that context. Sometimes, it takes more than one conversation to find solutions. Trust the process.

- Research Background Information: Investigate the stakeholder's background, including their professional history, previous interactions with your organization, and any relevant personal details that might influence their perspective. - Analyze Past Communications: Review previous communications with the stakeholder. This can include emails, reports, meeting notes, or any documented exchanges. Look for patterns in their concerns, questions, and feedback. - Empathy Mapping: Create an empathy map for the stakeholder. This involves identifying what they are thinking, feeling, seeing, and hearing. Understanding these elements can help you gauge their emotional state and perspective.

I understand that people prefer to avoid difficult conversations, but I believe that this type of situation offers a rich opportunity to develop very important skills for your professional career. Among the various skills, I believe that active listening is the richest and at this point nature gives us a clue: we have two ears and one mouth. Listening gives the other party the opportunity to express their ideas and active listening pays attention not only to the words spoken, but also to how the body reacts to the exposure of the words. Active scouting will help you understand the context from someone else’s perspective.

It's essential to understand the difference between being assertive and aggressive. While aggression will get you noticed, it may not get you heard. I remember watching someone on a team I was on who was often aggressive in expressing ideas and reforms that would bring on change but then would quickly back off the topic when the room was uncomfortable from the aggression. Take a deep breath, recognize your idea is valid and worth discussion, and be willing to explain yourself.

Don't underestimate the value of transparency. There is value in having your counterpart understand the root-cause issues you are facing while you also gain an understanding in their challenges as well. Rather than going in with a predisposed notion of a solution, if you try to understand each other's predicament, it may be easier to achieve a solution amenable to both.