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Writer's pictureTim

Listen up

It’s sad how we sometimes automatically work to marginalize someone’s opinion or thoughts.


On a general level this is politics. For example “What you are saying makes no sense and is a bad idea because you are a ____________ (insert Democrat or Republican here).


This happens in companies all the time; “what do you know about operations, you are just a sales guy”. “What do you know about finance, you are in marketing”?


Every department tries to defend its territory, not with better thinking but with these moronic statements that simply limit debate and thought creation.


The statements above are derived from weakness and laziness. They don’t just limit progress, they drive you backward as they build a culture of us vs them.


Such a dynamic must be resisted. I have a good friend who says “don’t just bring me an opinion, show me some data/model of your thinking” I think this is more than reasonable and a great way to move beyond the “I’m in sales and you are in operations so we can’t talk to each other” type of thinking.


Whatever your method you must move past the limiting categories that people try and throw up when they don’t want to do any critical thinking.


Certainly it is fine to understand from which direction someone might be viewing a problem (i.e. marketing, finance, etc.) but you had better be clear that you discount open conversations and the free flow of ideas at your own peril.


So listen up.

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