Before You Speak WAIT

We all know that it’s important to listen to others while they are talking.  Most of us can’t help coming up with our retort instead of listening and understand what the other person is saying.  We do this particularly when we are in a conflict with another person.  I have found 2 tools that can help you to diffuse the situation.

1. WAIT – Why Am I Talking?
2. WATT – Why Are They Talking?

When you are about to speak WAIT ask yourself “why am I talking?”  Doing this will give you a chance to organize your thoughts and form your message as concisely as possible.

WATT aids in audience analysis.  Ask yourself “why are they talking?”  Doing this allows you to guess at what the other person needs or the message they are trying to send you.  Trying to answer the question “why are they talking?” focuses your attention on the speaker.  WATT helps you to determine what the speaker needs and wants from you.  If you can successfully answer WATT then you will be able to react to the speaker the way they want even if they haven’t been clear.

I found a picture of a WAIT flow chart on the internet.

Source: http://diceytroop.tumblr.com/post/14084648430/w-a-i-t-why-am-i-talking-flowchart-in-the