Too long....

This weekend I had a meeting with a business person concerning the theatre. 

I have had a couple of these with high powered business folks who think they are dealing with an "artist" only or who I see as one-dimensional in their approach to business.  ROI. And hey, they certainly have more saved up in the bank than I do so.... 

But not all business folks have the same "world view" of the arts or of artists and that's fine. I am not out to evangelize. Well sometimes...but not right now.  If you haven't read how the arts help children develop and test scores and creative problem solving and blah blah blah..I am not going to convince you because it's not important to your "world view".  And that's ok! 

But I read Seth's blog on TL;DR ("Too long, Didn't read) for email responses, with interest. It's the idea that while that is a sassy way to tell someone their email was too long and that you are too busy and important to read it, it's also indicative of "...a sad, dangerous symptom of the malfunctions caused by the internet tsunami. "

I see this as the same with in-person meetings where the person cuts you off. Even when you have paired down and paired down your words to mere "sound bites". The "new" is in New Paradigm for a reason and I might have to explain a bit why!

But instead of being offended...which I will admit I was at first...I realized it's a better approach to learn how to relate to this type of person.  Some of them I will have to just walk away saying "Next!", but some may be cutting me off to get me to "speak their language" or to educate them.  (Yes...I realize that is very Pollyanna)

They may sound rude to me...and I will have to figure out a nice way to ask them to stop cutting me off....but maybe they are really just asking me to explain it so that they understand.  
Maybe I can ask more questions so that I really see where they are coming from first.  Then I can tailor my approach using their own words back to them.  

Ok this is why I like writing this blog.....