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(NLP - Document) Wesley Anderson - Words Matter
(NLP - Document) Wesley Anderson - Words Matter
Time passes. Suzie Darling's eight years old, and now it's Mom's
turn to ask "Why?".
"Why didn't you clean up your room after school, like I told you to
do?"
So some years later Suzie's all grown up. She married and has a good
job. And, what
happens when Joe asks her "Why" she filled out the paperwork for the
new A-1 widgets
that way? She automatically gets a tiny bit defensive.
Human minds make associations. Flags remind us of Mom, and apple pie
because
they've been mentioned together so many times. And, a great many
seemingly innocent
words can inadvertently evoke none too desirable feelings at times.
So now that you've taken the first step, and become aware that
eliminating "why"
questions can promote more positive responses from simple requests
for information,
what are you going to do? True, putting your new knowledge into
practice will take a
little effort, but surely by now you can imagine the rewards vividly
enough to be
motivated to take action.
Curious about other hot button words? How about the "right/wrong"
and "good/bad"
concepts? Imagine if your boss said, "That doesn't really fit what
we need here. Go ahead
and move the eggs in the large cartons." Instead of, "That's all
wrong. Put the eggs in the
large cartons." Which of those two would make you feel the best?
Which of those two
would motivate you to do your best job for the boss?
In becoming aware of the power of words like "why", you can begin to
appreciate the
value of choosing words with care. By now, it's become easier to
appreciate how a little
verbal precision can make a decided difference in the relationships
that we care most
about.
The good news is, that after a little effort, new speaking habits
can be established, and we
begin to speak with an increasingly easy and automatic precision.