What are some features that help keep you fully engaged in a conversation? After four years jotting down conversational tidbits in my blog log, a pattern appears to be emerging. Certain people are more likely to give me ideas for future posts. And all these folks share characteristics, aside from being good listeners.
* When expressing an opinion, itself not a frequent occurrence, these folks often preface it with "...in my experience..." My own conversational repertoire was enhanced after I began starting sentences containing an opinion with "It's possible that..." I learned this from Benjamin Franklin.
* I've observed that skilled use of metaphor is a fairly common element among "go to" conversationalists. Though I've made it a norm not using names here, I need to acknowledge EP - one of my "go to" people - as I paraphrase his recent basketball metaphor. "If you're not committing a foul every so often, you're probably not fully in the game." Well put EP, and small "t" true.
* The conversations generating the most morsels for me have a synergy to them. My same group - who are not as inclined to discuss people or events but instead, ideas - seem to build on my contributions to our conversation so that, in the end, what arises is richer than what either of us has said. It's magical.
What have you observed?
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
No comments:
Post a Comment