Disagreement is a part of every day life. Whether in your personal life, business life, social life – disagreements happen. I came across an interesting article, The Mistake You Make in Every Argument, that gave an interesting perspective on how to make the best of the often times unavoidable argument.
How do you respond when someone says something you disagree with? Do you calmly tell the person why they are mistaken, do you jump right in to defensive mode and yell or do you retreat and let them have their way? In his article, Dr. Liane Davey makes the argument that all of those responses are wrong and the only way to get results in an argument is to first validate the other’s point of view.
The first thing you have to do is validate the other person even though you completely disagree with them!
See, when you validate the other person’s opinion you are sending the signal that you are going to solve the problem as allies instead of adversaries and who doesn’t want to work from that perspective? It will short-circuit an argument, reduce defensiveness and increase the speed in which the argument is solved.
So next time an argument ensues – stop and validate the other’s opinion.