Diversity is Differently Abled

Though we often think of the term "differently abled" to address those with special needs, it is a term we all need to embrace to recognize, engage and utilize the different skills, abilities, experiences, insights and perspectives each of us have to offer.  So often we seek and find commonality, yet innovations, breakthroughs and ideal engagements are generally the result of incorporating different ways of thinking, seeing and acting.

Questions Connect

Questions connote interest, elicit information and give us the chance to discover commonalities when we pay attention to the answers given. 

Ann/Anne x 4

Five women and three men were in a strategy session this week.  I continue to find interesting connections and surprisingly, two women were named Anne and two others had Ann as a middle name.  This struck me as extremely unusual, so I searched and discovered that Ann is the 48th most common female name in America and Anne is the 85th most common.  First names of the other 3 female participants ranked 37, 101 and 568.

As extraordinary as the odds of this name frequency are, it's also amazing that we even discovered the commonality.

Everything's connected in more ways than we assume.  Curiosity helps us connect.

Does Everyone Else Have Twins?

Earlier this week 10 bankers hosted 13 special guests at a business luncheon. I always look for interesting connections. As I visited with three of our attendees, I became amazed that they were each the parents of twins.  Because this was definitely not a group discussion topic, it is possible that one or more of the other 10 attendees are also parents of twins.  My curiosity caused me to find the expected incidence of twins in the U.S. population.  It is 32.1 in 1000 births. 

This unusually high incidence of twins reminded me that when we look for commonalities, we will find them.  Common denominators are the fundamental building blocks of strong relationships.

Shared Sense of Urgency

Delivery companies and many retail establishments are willing to act on our sense of urgency when we are willing to pay a quick delivery premium or expedite charge. Each party has clearly defined expectations. In order to get others to share our sense of urgency, we need to give them a reason, financial or other, to want to meet our expected timeline. In our personal relationships, it often only takes clearly communicating when we want or need something done.


In other cases, we must realize that our time-sensitivity doesn’t necessarily mean a lot to others who have no way to benefit from our desire to be served quickly. Hospital emergency rooms share our sense of urgency only when we present a true medical emergency. Because so many patients present non-medically urgent conditions, appropriate care is delivered based upon the hospital’s timeline. And, it doesn’t matter to the other passengers in the airport security line that we’re cutting it close to make our flight. They all have planes to catch as well.

When time is of the essence to us, we must create a shared sense of urgency with others.

Commonality

Meeting new people is always easiest when we look for things we have in common.  There are so many opportunities to share interests, traits, backgrounds, experiences and aspirations.