Gary Drenik: A lot has been written and discussed about the Great Resignation and how employees are changing jobs more than ever. What role has communication – or a lack thereof – played in this movement?
Joseph Grenny: If you can’t communicate with your leaders and colleagues, you can’t develop the relationships that are necessary to combat the issues that are arising in today’s world. Instead, when confronted with a crucial conversation, many of us resort to one of two options – silence or violence. We either don’t speak up at all, or we act out angrily.
But these don’t have to be our only two options. To help people feel safe in these crucial conversations, we must establish mutual purpose and mutual respect. Often a specific complaint is really one aspect of a larger problem. If we can come to a colleague with a sincere desire to solve a shared problem, they’ll be more likely to work with you in a productive way.