Be open and learn

This post is me rambling on about my reoccuring thoughts. There is no specific inside besides the title, so if you're short on time, you already know the important part. 😎

First a short warning: I'm an engineer, so I take most things as an engineering problem. I try not to do that, but I'm old and stubborn and sometimes I forget that not everyone thinks the same.

Anyway, the past couple days I was again reminded about something I actively try to do: don't assume that you already know everything and listen to people. Don't judge their knowledge and expertise based on outside looks or years of experience alone. If you are asked about something, try to find out what your partner in the conversation already knows and what his or hers expectations are and then offer your own knowledge and point of view.

I like to start with a very, very, very high level point of view on a problem or situation. This is helpful to find a common base and then clearly focus on the subject and rule out other distracting parts of the surrounding topics. After narrowing down on the shared understanding of the question at hand, I try to offer as much information about work I've already done and steer the conversation to the next actionable steps.

When I'm working with other people I am always willing to answer questions, but I also expect that people already tried the obvious solution (for their respective level of expertise) to solve an issue.

This engineering attitude sometimes gets in the way when dealing with people, and I sometimes have a hard time dealing with conversations which do not require a solution-based thinking (like, most conversations in a purely social setting), but I try my best.

Well, that was long for a though that can be summarized by "Be open and learn". Thanks for getting through. 😊