3 Comments

I really enjoyed your article! It’s such a great reminder of how our instinct to react defensively can escalate tensions in conversations. Your "cool heads" conversation starters are fantastic tools for managing those moments. Thanks for sharing these valuable insights!

Expand full comment

I like how you phrased it here: Project Therapist.

I've been saying this for such a long time!

When people are defensive and don't understand the reason behind less technical people's feedback and frustrations, it eventually turns into a problem that "could-have-been-avoided". Sometimes, all they want is for Tech Teams to commit to hearing them, and have our teams continue to show up despite the failures. "lessons learned" / post-mortem meetings are basically free therapy sometimes!

Expand full comment
author

Committing to active listening seems like such a minor action in the moment, but often pays dividends later to reduce those negative "lessons learned".

Expand full comment