Just say yes to grow agreement
© Can Stock Photo / aaronamat All day, every day, you say things that you don't mean. It's not that you are lying. It's that we all use verbal markers while we think. We say "um" or "hmmm" or we say things like "no" when we mean "I haven't thought about it like that before." Our brains move faster than our mouths, and while we are processing, we make sounds that mostly just mean "I'm processing." Why not replace those sounds you make while you are thinking with some form of the word "yes?" Yes is a word that means: "I am listening. I want to connect. I want to agree." It doesn't mean I necessarily agree with what you just said. Yes is the beginning of the story, not the end. I can follow it with another step. And that step might invite you to go in a new direction. When I start with "yes," what you hear is a desire to connect safely. That's because your brain (...