As humans we have an innate urge to judge our surroundings and other individuals. It’s a survival instinct that helps us assess safety and risk.

While we can never suppress the instinct entirely, there are ways we can control our judgmental communication tendencies. Judgmental communication can shut people down, breed suspicions, and thwart possible solutions.

Turns out the key to preventing judgmental communication is keeping an open mind. Pre-conceived notions foster judgmental thinking.

Here are some tips we found for keeping an open mind at TheOneThing website created by Gary Keller of Keller Williams Realty fame:

1. When in disagreement, focus on the legitimacy of a claim, not your opinion of the person you’re in disagreement with.
2. Hear the person out before coming to a conclusion.
3. Ask “why” to get a better understanding behind someone’s motivations.
4. Ask them for solutions. They may make the same observations you’ve made, which helps neutralize judgment.
5. Instead of giving a definitive thumbs down offer ideas for improvement.
6. Instead of using “good”, “bad”, “right” and “wrong” use the word “interesting” and follow it up with your observations.
7. Keep things focused on the situation at hand and avoid generalizations and past disagreements.

Judgmental communication creates divisions and inhibits new breakthroughs.

Keep an open mind to keep your best options open.

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