Bringing The Best Minds Together

I recently participated in training on "Creating Labor Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services."

It's a mouthful.

It's an Executive Order.

It establishes a new direction for Federal sector labor relations the redefines predecisional involvement (another mouthful).

It's a good thing. 

Now, I am not going to talk about the Order itself other than to say that, at it's heart, it's all about discussion between equal parties. It's all about bringing the best minds together to solve problems.

There are two key points the presenters made that I'd like to share with you because they are basic, core, things-we-should-have-learned-in-kindergarten types of things. 

These are two key points each of us would benefit from applying to all of our interactions with colleagues, peers and leaders:

Don't assume. Don't assume that mistakes are intentional. Don't assume that because something didn't happen the way you had expected it to that it didn't happen at all.

Inquire. Inquire don't challenge. Inquire don't fight. Inquire don't assume. Circling back to the bullet above . . .

You do these two things in your very next interaction and I guarantee (yes, guarantee) that you will be presently surprised at the result.

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