Listening to the Tock and the Tick

I’ve spent my business life working to understand what makes people tick and finding creative ways to connect with them. Sometimes the study is about people with whom I have much in common, but mostly I’ve learned about people who think quite differently to me. I know this is part of what I’ve loved about my job because it’s also what I do in life — being every-day fascinated by the tick-tock of human behavior.

The people I study have different behaviors and priorities. Their days are filled with concerns that begin and end along a path on which I have never walked.  But it’s my job to dig deeply enough and have a heart to care enough that I can communicate effectively with them.  Whoever they are.

So… I always like a good paradox and this leads me to a fun one. (Hang on.)

As we grow in our conviction of our own beliefs, it could also follow that we grow in our understanding that others can be convicted, too, in their own beliefs. In the differing of beliefs, and in our individual conviction about our beliefs, we hopefully can find it most important to begin the conversation by listening. Indeed, if we have traveled a road that seems logical and meaningful to us, we can assume that our fellow journeyer on the other side of the mountain (or lake) believes he also traveled an intellectual or spiritual road that is right for him. Might there be a fascinating intersection or merge? Or might the difference be head-shakingly crazy and we agree to respectfully disagree?

Yes. (Tick. Tock.)

This difference can either frustrate us or fascinate us, depending on our desire to connect. But can we really effectively invite people to understand our tick-tocking if we’re not in the least bit interested in their tock-ticking? See, it’s fun to explore another’s ticking and still have a common-feathered-flock with whom we share tocking. And somewhere along the way we just might help create a whole new sound for someone … or ourselves.

PHOTO CREDIT: Creative Commons