We have heard about "it" a lot, but this one is Different!

Knowledge is all around us, and we just need to have our senses - eyes, mind, ears and heart in sync, at the precise time, to seize the chance that is provided to us to learn something new. My senses were with me this afternoon, and I am grateful to them, so I could pick up a new learning which I haven’t seen or experienced until now.

Let me first set the context about where this opportunity showered onto me and what were the happenings.

It was our last day to renew our apartment lease or to give a notice to vacant, until we would fall into the trap of the small lines between the long lease agreement. So I was here at the leasing office, and there were 3 other parties working on their agreements. One was a lady who was just finishing up on her questions. The other was finishing up on the process and making the payments to make the community his new home. The last was a couple sitting next to each other that had a bunch of papers in their hands. Along with them, there were two kind ladies from the leasing office helping the first two. We waited for others to finish up and suddenly my senses caught this interesting learning.

What’s your guess about the new learning and where do you think this came from? The leasing office ladies? The first Lady? The second Guy? Or the last Couple?

There is a rush for the “first”, everywhere, and everyone just wants to beat the others to make it there. But here, it was from the last, from the couple who was waiting for their turn with a bunch of papers in their hands. I did not notice what I learned when I first entered, though the learning was in progress, but as soon as my senses connected, I was amazed on what I had learned.

What’s the learning?

Communication at its best!

(Reading) AND (Listening, Absorbing and Confirming) all at the same time! Not with a pause, but all in sync in the same moment of the time.

We all have read about effective communication, and so many great articles and so many great books have been written about this single topic. But this experience was different, and I haven’t read about it anywhere so far. Glad my senses clicked at the right moment and I was fortunate to seize this moment.

So what was so special about this mode of communication?

The couple was actually reading through their new lease agreement. Guess they were future tenants who were planning their stay in our beautiful community. But the way they did it, was so amazing to me, that I just couldn’t resist focusing my thoughts on this one.

Here is how they did it,

The lady was reading the lease agreement aloud and fast, I mean it fast, not with the usual reading to understand or interpret, but simply fast, like the speed of a bullet. She just kept reading without a pause and there was no sign of her slowing down. While she was at her best speed, her other half was leaning towards her, and had his full attention to the words that were shooting out like a bullet. It was like he was meditating, fully into himself, and nothing seemed to be around him, but just those loud words. Suddenly he would stop the lady, look into the paper and then she would continue from where she left, at the same speed. Within a few minutes, they were all done with the bunch of papers and no questions or doubts to be asked. They read it, listened to it, absorbed it and confirmed it, all in a single moment.

What a duo combination of communication!

A single person has limits; he/she can either speak and follow his/her own thoughts, or listen to the other and absorb and confirm the thoughts. Both cannot be done in the same moment, and if someone can do, they surely must be a genius. I can’t, and not sure if you can do it, but I guess speaking and listening are contrary, if done in the same moment. But if we could combine the power of speaking and listening into one, that would be a new revolution into this topic of communication. Say you are reviewing a document, you read it and understand it, while the other listens to what you read and absorbs as well as confirms the thoughts, then there would be no doubt that the whole process of review was a success, without a single person’s perception of what they read or understood.

May be this might not be practical, but the couple did it, and successfully as well, and there is no harm in giving it a try.

Do you want to give it a try and see if this works for you? Glad to hear your thoughts.

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You gave me your  TIME, the most thoughtful  GIFT of all - Dan Zadra