Misunderstandings are all around us, and no one enjoys being misunderstood.
They take place at the national level — daily. In the United States, a large minority of the country believes the presidential election was stolen from them, and another large minority can’t believe anyone would think that.
And, misunderstandings are happening more and more with so many of our interactions being virtual right now. I was on a call with Eric Smith at High Alpha venture studio this past week, who shared that his biggest regret of COVID is that he can’t see his colleagues’ microexpressions. He can’t see their legs move in a way that shows they’re anxious about something he said. He can’t see someone’s body language after a meeting to understand if they’re upset. So, he may think someone is completely fine when in reality they are incredibly anxious. In a virtual environment, people have to communicate issues verbally, which is difficult to do.
Just this past week, Dani (GAN’s rockstar COO) vetoed a growth idea I had that had expense-related implications. This interaction evolved into a multi-hour ping pong discussion over text. As we were texting, I thought she didn’t understand how important my idea was to our growth and wasn’t taking a holistic view of the company. But, as soon as I picked up the phone and actually asked Dani what her intentions…
