That person is stupid. The client is stupid because he shot down my idea. The developer is stupid because he is pushing back on the worlds most beautiful design. The designer is stupid because she cares about the UI being pixel perfect in IE 7.
It could be our client, team member or anyone else we interact with. Regardless who it is – Stupid is the kiss of death. Stupid means we have lost respect and we are no longer doing our best thinking and work.
In most cases people make what they perceive to be rational well thought out decisions. It may not a case of stupidity, rather it is we don’t see the other persons perspective and there is a break down of communication.
When situations or people start to feel stupid try to understand two points:
1. What does the situation look like from their perspective?
This calls for empathy.
2. How can you get them to clearly articulate their perspective?
You have to draw them out, then reason on the situation.
The quicker you can make this happen, the sooner you will realize just how smart people are.
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