Recently we had an two day offsite for the Animation Mentor senior team. Day two we brought in an outside facilitator to help us work on improving our communication. I'd say this was one of the most insightful and humbling days I've had in a long time and I'd like to share one of the big takeaways I got from that day.

Get Curious:
We did an exercise where we took a piece of paper and folded it in half. On the right hand column we each wrote a different conversation we had recently that frustrated us. Then, on the left hand column, we wrote what was going on in our heads during particular moments in that conversation. Our facilitator noted that not a single one of us asked questions when we got frustrated. Instead we acted on what our mind/assumptions was telling us. He urged us instead to ask questions and get curious in these moments as there is almost inevitably a misunderstanding in the making.

Throughout the day he worked us through real experiential moments and we each had many opportunities to practice our new skill of getting curious. We also got feedback from our peers after each conversation -- which was extremely insightful.

I LOVE learning and there were so many incredible breakthroughs that day. I wanted to share this thought around getting curious when you start to feel "triggered" or upset as, chances are, there may be just a simple misunderstanding -- and building this muscle to REALLY listen is pretty incredible. But more on that later.