Tag: Problem Solving

By Julian Bartlett-Keates

“I believe one of the greatest human failings is to prefer to be right than to be effective”
This is a quote from Stephen Fry, someone I admire quite considerably. I believe it’s true. I’m guilty of it myself. I think many can relate to the experience of being so pulled into an argument that whether it’s a useful expenditure of your time and energy goes completely out of the window. Perhaps an internet argument. Perhaps Jenny from New Plymouth implied on one of your marketplace listings that you’re a bad pet owner and she can’t possibly be allowed to get away with it. The same thing can happen in relationships. Sometimes it can be valuable to make sure we’re aiming for the right thing. Am I trying to be right, or am I trying to be effective? Are we having the same conversations? Where will those conversations get us? Life is hard, and we all get tired. Trying something new takes energy we don’t always feel like we have. But new habits and new conversations lead to different results. And a lot of us could use some different results. So if we feel like we’re circling the drain of the same argument or disagreement that we’ve had a million times, let’s think about the conversations we’re not having