Meaningful Conversations With Delicious Beverages
I promise you, for my mental health as much as anything else, this will NOT become a political blog. Despite my honest intentions to do just the one post on politics, teaching social studies to seventh graders in the days after a presidential debate can lead to a certain focus.
Brandon was recently provided some feedback from Jared Truby from Cat and Cloud Coffee to help handle the pressure of starting a business. The advice was to meditate for 10-20 minutes morning and night. Brandon told this story on Instagram and received a request for caution from a social media friend.
As a sucker for all rhyme based catch phrases, I instantly loved it. While we did indeed live up to the line in our discussion, providing an example of how differing view points can interact respectfully, I figured today I'd work on a brief list of guidelines for what we mean.
When we talk about giving people the benefit of the doubt, or applying the principal of charity, in a conversation, who actually benefits?
I believe myself to be a very merit based. I hired lots of people of different gender and race. I did find myself struggling to accept older candidates though. The reason being, in my fast paced and demanding world, the learning curve was just too long. I needed people who could pick up concepts quickly and implement immediately. Younger people just learn faster than older people, you can't argue with science.
Over the years, I learned a lot and my perceptions changed. Yes, older candidates learned slower, but they had a foundation of experience to pull from for decision-making that younger candidates did not. That was valuable. Ultimately, I found a balanced mix had the best results.
I learned a lot about how to teach and train while working with just a varied workforce.