Everyone can teach you something. I’ve always held this as a core belief.
Everywhere you go you meet people who offer insight into things of interest and/or value.
There’s always downtime whether you’re traveling, at a conference, arrived early for a meeting, attending a dinner party, or just waiting in-line. You don’t always want to be checking texts, messages, e-mails, reading a book or watching a screen. So, why not engage someone in conversation?
From a superficial viewpoint not everyone might seem that interesting. But everyone harbors insights you don’t possess.
We’re not all extroverts or people-persons, yet there are opportunities all around us to learn more from and better understand others.
When you first enter a conversation the points of interest are often not always apparent. You need to ask-listen, ask again, and then listen more. Eventually something emerges that piques your interest, or at worst you learn a new perspective on life. There hardly seems any downside.
Dale Carnegie’s secret to being a great conversationalist was simply this ask-and-listen method. He’s storied as spending one evening speaking with a particular lady who proclaimed him the world’s greatest conversationalist. In fact, by his own words all he did was to simply ask questions and let her talk. Most people love talking about themselves.
Personally I’ve enjoyed many fascinating hours throughout my life learning details of people’s work, challenges, ideas, aspirations, lifestyles and fears. My worldview is as much formed by this as endless hours of hands-on business, reading, researching and just living day-to-day.
Engaging others is a part of life, both in satisfying your curiosity and in solving problems.
In the workplace, most answers you need are available for the taking. It’s a matter of simply asking and listening. The value is there for you to evaluate, then take or leave. And let’s face it if you offer an empowered environment where you’re available, then people will speak out; when unjudged they’ll freely offer you their very best thoughts and insights.
Valuable ideas don’t always come from the expected places. Great insights can emerge from anywhere in an organization. They are commonly not the inevitable and personal output of the VP of this, or CEO of that.
It’s the same outside the workplace. I have to admit I’ve loved gleaning perspective and knowledge volunteered by folks ranging from chairman, through CEOs to house cleaners. Most of us are naturally curious and it’s amazing what information such diverse characters can provide, if you’ll let them.
Things we learn and practice don’t show up just before we need them. Rather they are learned over time, sometimes decades. Those snippets gathered today may provide invaluable foundations to challenges we face in the future.
For instance: you might learn a particular corporation’s perspective on a legal matter today, yet not apply that knowledge until years later. Or, you may never use those specific facts, but rather assimilate their broad significance into your general understanding of such organizations for future reference.
It’s much the same with the more mundane. You might eat up facts about sports and professional athletes; perhaps you just like to trot this information out as part of your favorite talking points at social events?
Such information is all good. If it interests you, gather it in. Even if it’s dull, but you might need it later, then suck that up, too.
Just remember, that person sitting right across from you might possess the very insight which may prove golden in your future. So, try it out and engage.
Ian R. Mackintosh is the author of Empower Your Inner Manager Twitter @ianrmackintosh