Mark the level of conversation you want to have.
How to have less confusing conversations by recognizing the level you're talking from.
Have you ever shared a big picture idea only to have a colleague respond with "what about [tiny detail]?"
Or perhaps the opposite: as you untangle a practical, present issue, the conversation gets hijacked by a long-term plan or idealistic vision.
If so, you'll find this collaboration tip adapted from Ray Dalio helpful:
Mark the level of conversation you want to have.
Are we talking about the big picture?
Down in the weeds?
(Somewhere in between?)
It's not apparent but immensely useful to know.
Each level of conversation benefits from different ways of thinking that are easily frustrated by higher-up or lower-down concerns.
Here's the problem: no one tends to recognize what level they're speaking from, let alone where others are speaking from. So discussion leaps and dives like a rollercoaster leaving everyone with a bit of mental whiplash.
Taking a tiny extra step – to verbally communicate the intended level of conversation – resolves so many unnecessary conflicts.
Conversation Map Legend
Galaxy-level conversations explore visions and ideas that may take generations to reach, never be realized, or disrupt everything next year. These kinds of conversations are best kept:
Expansive: seeks out rabbit trails and new connections instead of deciding on The Right Way.
Loose: readily discards even good ideas to chase another that just now came to mind – nothing is “off-topic” and the conversation borders on reckless.
Unstructured: resits forcing ideas into familiar, comfortable mental frameworks (although it may pick them up and drop them like a single-use test tube or swab). Instead, these conversations let new ideas evolve into new, improved frameworks.
Risky: resists a feeling of safety or boredom – sure signals that a galaxy conversation is crashing down to the ground, Galaxy conversations are intoxicating and expansive by definition.
For more, read about how The future operates in a different kind of time.
Forrest-level conversations shape vague ideas into viable plans and preliminary designs; They define clear goals and set constraints for upcoming work. Successful conversations in this middle space are:
Targeted: moves ideas into a defined pursuit that can clearly be said to have succeeded or failed, not merely explored.
Emergent: combines patterns in multiple galaxy-level ideas to form a cohesive, workable plan.
Bridging: holds a working understanding of the futuristic visions of what could be and the present detailed complexities of the way things actually are without disregarding either.
Judicious: knows where to put constraints around risks and rabbit trails and where to leave plenty of open space for novel interpretation and craftsmanship.
For more, see Creative work is like fighting a dragon up a hill.
Tree-level conversations are all about the present details of the actual work. It's where we build, edit, refine, and repair. Conversations down here are best kept:
Precise: leaves as little ambiguity as possible and only trusts patterns that we can reliably repeat.
Structured: uses to-do lists, timelines, deadlines, and other tools that wrangle something new into order.
Nurturing: respects the fragility of the current order of things and softens the impact of new changes accordingly.
Tenacious: Patiently brings the work to completion to the very last obscure detail.
For more, see The rocky downhill slope of creative work.