Week Three: Inside Out

[Trey Finley]

Highland Oaks friends, here's your mission for the week:

Identify someone in your workplace that you don't often associate with. Your reasons for not talking much with them may be good (you don't see them much) or not so good (you just plain don't like them). Reason doesn't matter; your job is to spend 5 good minutes with them.

In case you're looking for a way to start that conversation, here's a couple of ideas:

1) Look for something in common--anything--to start the conversation.
2) Ask about their family. Spouse, parents, kids, great uncle Bob, whatever.
3) Talk job for a few minutes. What do they do? What do they like? How did they get the job there? Where else have they worked?
4) What do they do when they're not at work? Hobbies, sports, favorite TV shows...

LISTEN. If you want to talk about yourself, don't. ASK ANOTHER QUESTION. Let me know how it goes!

[James Nored]

Marla, what is FORMing? And what is www.firststepstosuccess.com really all about?

[James Nored]

Trey, I tried this with my secretary, but she said that she wasn't interested in church. :)

Actually, I often long for having a "real job" so that I can have more consistent interactions with non-Christians. Have you ever felt that way?

These are good tips that you give here for conversation. It is shocking how many people do not know how to have a good conversation. Asking about the other person's life and listening is what it is all about.

[Marla Finley]

I love this project. This has been my business model for the last year and a half since I started taking FORMing seriously. I highly recommend attending www.firststepstosuccess.com to get really good at this skill of truly listening to others because you care about them.

It's a discipline to stop talking about myself and yet so freeing that I no longer feel responsible for relating to the mundane and yuk that people usually complain about. Instead I ask them to tell me more.