Morendil,
Thank you for reminding me of this book! A technique I remember being described there is very attractive to me. My memory will mangle the details, but basically it is a convention by which either party in a discussion (say, party A in a discussion with party B) can call a point of order to ask the other party (in this case, B) to state A’s position to A’s satisfaction.
I have tried this some with mixed results, which I suspect could have been better with more preparatory groundwork. I’d love to hear of others’ experiences.
Yes Nisan, that is the gist as I recall it. One can see how such a tool might help with a whole host of dysfunctional discussion/meeting behaviors.
A skeptic might regard this as gimmicky, and point out that the discipline required to use the tool properly would, if present, have prevented the dysfunctions in the first place. To which I reply: Well, maybe. But it’s cheap to try. You might even enjoy it.
What I like about the Protocols is that most of them can be practiced unilaterally and without even sounding weird. “Okay, what is our intention here” can be a powerful question when a discussion is getting bogged down.
Morendil, Thank you for reminding me of this book! A technique I remember being described there is very attractive to me. My memory will mangle the details, but basically it is a convention by which either party in a discussion (say, party A in a discussion with party B) can call a point of order to ask the other party (in this case, B) to state A’s position to A’s satisfaction.
I have tried this some with mixed results, which I suspect could have been better with more preparatory groundwork. I’d love to hear of others’ experiences.
“What do you think I believe?” “Why do you think I believe what I believe?”
I haven’t tried these out yet.
Yes Nisan, that is the gist as I recall it. One can see how such a tool might help with a whole host of dysfunctional discussion/meeting behaviors.
A skeptic might regard this as gimmicky, and point out that the discipline required to use the tool properly would, if present, have prevented the dysfunctions in the first place. To which I reply: Well, maybe. But it’s cheap to try. You might even enjoy it.
That sounds like either a Protocol Check or the more useful Intention Check.
What I like about the Protocols is that most of them can be practiced unilaterally and without even sounding weird. “Okay, what is our intention here” can be a powerful question when a discussion is getting bogged down.