Animal Talk/Inflammatory Folks

Nothing cool happening over here today, unless you count giving lessons on talking to spooked animals and inflammatory people. That might be the exact same conversation, but the skill translates, trust me. Honestly, this was a lesson for me many years ago, and it has served me well!

Growing up on a farm, having 4-H animals too, you learn how to approach animals, and how to talk to them to get them used to your voice. You learn how to speak with a soft even tone to soothe their concerns, and to build trust. You build rapport so you can work with the animal, become a better team, and it helps you learn to interpret subtle signals from each other. It requires patience and respect, time and effort, self discipline and a forward thinking plan. This all applies to inflammatory folks as well!

We don’t always know someone’s back story, or what their life is like, but if we approach with the same methods we approach a spooked animal, we are certain to accomplish at least one thing, observation. We must observe animals and people to ascertain the best approach to communicate with them. If we are loud and expressive, it could feel intrusive to people, more so to inflammatory folks. Who knows, maybe they will walk away from us, just like our four legged friends would do? Perhaps they will have a louder voice, bigger gestures and expressions? Maybe you trip a trigger and you receive an explosion after that? Have you had that happen, or been witness to someone do that? Did you wonder what happened or what caused it? Did you question if a differing approach would have been better? I can tell you, staying calm, rational and reasonable can get you further with an inflammatory person, maybe even resulting in a clear communicative conversation. Perhaps it gets you nowhere, but by staying in this approach, it helps you walk away feeling better and less inflamed, yourself!

So tell me, have you tried the spooked animal approach? Did it work? If you haven’t tried it, would you be willing to? Drop me a line, let me know if you have tried this approach, how it went, or if there is someone you can give it a go with! I would love to know!