I do a bit of drawing with a white board marker on my desk, it’s a productivity thing that I might talk about later. Regardless, my boss came up to me and said “are you drawing on our tables” and I said in response “but its white board marker, it comes off”.
How each of us listens will go one of two core ways, we will hear ‘Literally’ or ‘Inferentially’.
Check out the definition of literal and inferential to be clear on their meaning.
My take is this, if you hear inferentially you look for meaning past just the words. If you hear literally you hear just the words.
Consider this scenario, you are out in the pub and one of your mates says “man I am thirsty”. What would your reaction be:
That’s nice!
Want a beer?
If you answered a. you hear literally, if you answered b. you hear inferentially.
This is topic goes quite nicely with my speaking filter blog as these are two key areas of communication that we get caught out on all the time.
So the next time you are talking with someone, check their response and notice if they have heard your literally or inferentially.
Rock and Roll
@robwway
PS. What’s the one thing you don’t do, that would cause the most positive change in your life?
