importance of being tentative

There are several books that are present in the business and societal sphere that have a great amount of fame and reputation. One of those books is the Crucial Conversations treatise offered by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Granny, Ron McMillan and Al Switzer. This brief report shall focus on three chapters in that book, those being the seventh, eighth and ninth. Respectively, those chapters deal with talking tentatively, paraphrasing and consensus. These are all important in their own right and should be fused together and used concurrently in whatever ways possible and practical. While it is possible to over-analyze and overuse the lessons in the relevant book, failing to do that at all is less than wise.

As described in the book, the practice of talking tentatively does not mean that one should be sheepish or too reserved. All it really means is to make sure to not err on the other extreme. Meaning, when one makes observations, perceptions and so forth, it offers a picture and part of what is going on. However, the ensuing perceptions and presumptions can be incomplete or flatly wrong. As such, one should be careful and delicate when speaking about matters that are not fully known about and verified. A good related example would be the appearance of impropriety versus actual impropriety. A tentative person will keep their attention at a high level when there is there is the appearance of impropriety but they will also be careful to not draw full and complete conclusions. This means being careful about what is said, what is not said and why. What is actually said in the conversations by the people making the conclusions should be more as a potential story or narrative rather than objective fact (Patterson, 2013).

The use of paraphrasing is similar to what is being done in this research, although the motivation is a little different. In this report, the ideas and details of the Patterson book are being stated in a way that is paraphrased because quoting directly, with or without quotes marks and citations, would not be proper research. In the case of a conversation, the use of paraphrasing is to help verify with the original speaker that there is understanding. This can be extremely useful for complex statements or any situation where the listener wants to be sure that they heard the original speaker correctly. For example, if a waiter is told by a patron that they want to drink Pepsi, they will often recite back that they want Pepsi, just to confirm that the patron was heard or to verify that the patron was heard correctly (Patterson, 2013).

Consensus is the final point that will be covered and this one is fairly basic, even if the path to the same can sometimes be circuitous and problematic. A consensus becomes necessary when there is a problem and there are disparate views on how to resolve said problem. A consensus is found when there is a singular solution that everyone can sign on to. This does not mean that the solution is entirely optimal the best for everyone involved. There may be some amount of compromise and tradeoffs that are employed. Even so, these tradeoffs can be used to help attain things that are of the utmost importance to everyone involved. For example, if a person wants $7,000 for a car and the seller really needs to make a sale, they may lower the price to $6,500 if the buyer is willing to do so immediately that very day. The seller gets his quick sale but has to concede a little on the price. The buyer gets a better price but has to render payment immediately to soothe the seller and incentivize the sale (Patterson, 2013).