Tammy Lenski’s writing a series on dialogue jump-starts as guest blogger at Notes on Design. Jump-start #3 is called Go to the Movies. In this post, she offers a fantastic analogy for stepping back and understanding (or at least trying to understand) another person’s perspective.

She presents some clear ideas for getting into someone’s movie:

Listening carefully, just like at the movies. You don’t repeatedly talk out loud there, right?

Getting into their movie isn’t about agreeing with them or suspending your disagreement for good. It’s about creating genuine space for the other’s perspective to reach you and be considered by you before you react, respond, reply.

Getting into someone’s movie is an act of appreciation. It’s appreciating that our own ideas are not universal truths, that our own perceptions are limited, and that our own potential to deeply connect with others is bounded only by our willingness to be open.