Conversational threads

I had an amazingly awkward conversation with an older neighbour recently, where after exchanging multiple goofy surface level ‘friendlies’,

“So what’s going on?”... “Not much”

“Things looking pretty great our way…” awkward silence,

“Is anything neat happening?”... it fizzled into mumbling replies.

I was laughing with a colleague later about my weird departure comment of…

“Sure is beautiful!” (reminded me of Jim Carey in Dumb and Dumber.. “Oh, big gulps huh, Alright. See ya later!”), laughable.

I refer to the fumbling conversations between certain people in my world as

‘out of sync conversational cadence’.

For some strange reason communication between these people always falters.

An instagram clip I viewed recently shed some light on one of the factors that I have been working on to remedy the problem, ‘conversational threads’.

This idea is simply that instead of answering with the most direct answer, it is your job to provide a few ‘threads’ from which the conversation can continue to progress.

“Are you going on holiday?”

“Yes we are going to Maui”, could instead be…

“We are taking our yearly trip to Maui. With the kids finishing their two university programs, and the Westjet vouchers earned through the rewards program, we had the perfect opportunity to meet up with my siblings who live on the coast now”.

I have now given multiple strands from which the conversation can expand.

Work on your ability to engage others in meaningful connections, by passing out these communicative ‘lifelines’.

• Now that’s a peak ethos.