At Seed World Group, one of our interview questions is, ‘When was the last time you changed your mind about something?’
It’s shocking to me how often people don’t have an answer or feel apologetic when they do. They don’t realize that we see it as a massive strength.
We’re not looking for someone who changes their mind frivolously, of course, but for someone self-aware enough to understand and consider why someone else holds a different viewpoint. Hearing what someone says is only part of the battle and understanding why they say it while being able to reflect on what you think you heard is critical. This traditional communication technique ensures clarity and mutual understanding, but we don’t do much of that anymore. It’s a skill we need to reclaim.
We have a problem in our industry, one that’s been brewing for a while. There’s a significant gap in understanding what’s needed to deliver on requests. This is especially apparent when it comes to the realm of policy. It’s one thing to ask for something, but it’s another to be clear about what needs to happen to make it deliverable.
This is especially apparent when government is dealing with industry, and vice versa.
When I talk to people in these situations, it becomes evident that they don’t want to compromise. They have a firm opinion, and it blinds them to the nuances involved in making things happen. They need to generate clarity, but they don’t do that because they fear they might end up compromising. They see compromise as failure, because the situation often involves sitting down with people they disagree with.
Many have lost the ability to have conversations and healthy discourse with those we disagree with, which is a fundamental problem in politics and, quite frankly, throughout the global seed industry.
This inability to understand someone else’s viewpoint or be clear enough to create a path forward prevents us from reaching our goals. When we don’t like someone or what we think they stand for, we put up walls to protect ourselves — communication walls that shield us from ideas and people we don’t like, and from being challenged.
We don’t want to listen to them, or to compromise. We like to feel that we’re in the right. It’s human nature. If we genuinely listen to those we sit down with, there’s a fear that we might have to meet them halfway, or at least acknowledge they have a right to feel how they do. With these walls in place, there’s no room for real conversation. If we could figure out how to sit down and have an open conversation without fear, we could make real progress.
We must foster the skill of talking WITH someone instead of talking AT them. It’s a skill that’s becoming rare and I believe that social media has eroded our ability to engage in meaningful, two-way conversations. We need to focus on developing this skill again, as it’s crucial for effective communication and collaboration.
My dad used to say, ‘If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.’ What he meant was that it’s important to have strong values, but many people often take that phrase to mean you should have a very firm, unwavering opinion, which creates a barrier to accepting change or other viewpoints.
Being extremely opinionated, to the point of never changing your mind, leads to an extreme mentality where we fight tooth and nail to ensure everyone knows what we stand for and that we won’t ever waver from that.
Compromising to reach the finish line is not a failure. It takes wisdom, self-awareness, commitment and bravery. For anyone who thinks that compromising to find a solution is a bad thing, I’d suggest they either haven’t been around very long, or they’re confused about what the end game is.
Another adage from my dad is, ‘You can either be right or you can have things go well.’ Being committed to things going well is different from being committed to being right. Go into conversations with the mindset of making things go well, and you’ll be amazed at the solutions that emerge.
