Imagine you work at the water utility answering phone calls from customers. A woman calls and says that her toilet had a leak last month and that made her bill $10 higher. She wants a refund. Your company has trained you to regard that request as unreasonable. And they’ve also trained you how to respond to unreasonable requests.
In your real life you encounter unreasonable people all the time. What’s your strategy for identifying them and then dealing with them? Is it a strategy, or is it just a habitual response?
Next question.
Have you ever been unreasonable? How did you discover this? What’s your strategy for determining when you’re unreasonable? What kinds of things do you tend to be unreasonable about?
You should have a strategy for managing your unreasonable behavior, and, ideally, minimizing it. A vague sense that you sometimes act unreasonably isn’t a strategy.
Of the two strategies that I’ve mentioned, which do you think is more important? Which one should you work on first, and pay more attention to?
If you’re reasonable you’ll figure it out.
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