My daughter knows this story well—
even if I’ve forgotten the particulars.
A research project asked young girls
what they wanted on their pizzas.
The girls enthusiastically named
their favorite pizza toppings.
The next year, the researchers asked again.
The girls answered the question with a question:
What do you like?
The next year, the same girls answered:
I don’t care, whatever you want.
Confidence.
Compromise.
Acquiescence.
It’s a slippery slope.
I worked for a woman who
facilitated a weekly staff meeting
in which she fired off random questions
at unsuspecting employees.
Current events. Office procedure. Business etiquette.
You didn’t have to have the right answer,
but you sure as hell had to have an answer.
Bother to have an opinion.
I appreciate the exercise
more now than I did then.
Acquiescing doesn’t make you easier to
get along with,
it makes you dull.
It’s a way to check out and let others do the much harder
work of healthy compromise via effective communication.
What if I really don’t care what I have on
my pizza?
Then offer a preference
and be willing to negotiate from there.
Because today it’s pizza
but tomorrow something much greater
will be at stake.
What’s Your Role In This?
Where There’s A Will….
