Have you ever experienced a conversation that went wrong? Even with the best of intentions, conversations can move into a domain we call “Conversational Hurricanes.” The first part of this post describes this phenomenon, and gives you some distinction so you can begin to gain better control over your automatic reactions and to design powerful authentic conversations. You cannot intervene in a world you cannot see.
The second part of the post discusses the next speech act – Expressives (Feelings). Conversational Hurricanes get trigged because of the emotional state certain interpretations trigger. Another aspect of Authentic Conversations is to gain access to and express one’s true feelings. It is critical to differentiate between real feelings and thoughts disguised as feelings.
