I heard a very interesting TED talk this evening. It was a discussion of good listening and effective conversation habits. Much of it I had heard before, in one form or another. For instance, don't equate your experience with theirs, don't interrupt, remove distractions, ask open ended questions and try not to repeat yourself. But one rule jumped out at me. Stay out of the "weeds". I knew immediately what the speaker meant because I have a dear friend who loves to ramble through the weeds conversationally speaking. She will start to tell me about a recent incident in her life or something one of her grandchildren or her cat has done, and before I know it she is piling on facts about other people who I don't know and situations that have nothing to do with the original topic. There have been many times when I have had to ask her, nicely I hope, to get back to the original point of the story. Usually because we have been on the phone for an hour or so and my listening ear is getting sore. Having experienced this from the receiving end, I shall do my best to 'stay out of the weeds.' The other really good piece of advice I got from this evening's talk was 'be brief' so I shall end this blog right here.
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