Middle ground
Welcome to Love Mondays, a weekly newsletter designed as a 3-minute hit to fire up the other 10,077 minutes of your week.
Please note, we have moved! We would love to keep inspiring your Monday mornings however will need you to shimmy over here to stay in touch.
Suit of armour? Or suit of amour?
When was the last time we really felt our emotions rise at work? Were we angry? Hurt? Demoralised? Workplace culture can risk detaching us from emotions in order to appear professional. We can find ourselves in a bind where there seem to be only two solutions: to shut up and let it go; or to boil over and express ‘brutal’ honesty. Where is the middle ground in ourselves that helps us establish a middle ground in our teams?
Think about an emotional tipping point affecting your workplace.
Write it down.
Consider: how many sides of the issue are visible to you?
Practice: encouraging the team to articulate the issue from another’s perspective
Decide to: acknowledge emotions in the group setting while working one-on-one to ensure individuals feel heard
STATE of Emotion. Territory of Middle Ground.
What is fact and what is opinion? It’s worth noting that scores of stories can be created from the same set of facts. The key is avoiding getting stuck in the three unhelpful storyline patterns: victim stories (it’s not my fault); villain stories (it’s my fault); and helpless stories (there’s nothing I can do). The goal is to create a bigger, shared story. To find the middle ground this week, why not try the STATE tools?
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Share the facts:‘ We can agree that...’
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Tell your story: ‘The story I’m telling myself about that is...’
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Ask for the other person’s story: ‘I’d appreciate hearing your side...’
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Talk tentatively: ‘Shall we..’ or ‘Perhaps the most sensible thing to do is...’
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Encourage testing: ‘So if we both agree that..’ or ‘A logical action may be to...’
Let emotion propel forward motion this week beautiful people!