Running Head: REVERSE ENGINEERING A CONVERSATION 1
Reverse Engineering A Conversation
Western Governors University
Reverse Engineering A Conversation
Active listening is just as important in a conversation as getting our own point across.
Having a discussion with another person is almost like a dance, especially a conversation that
turns into an argument. When a conversation turns into an argument, we have a choice to make.
We can either overly appease the other person to end the conversation, we can be brutally honest
to make sure our point gets across, we can actively listen to the other persons side, or we can
clarify the problem and figure out a way to create a common ground between the two sides.
These types of conversation strategies can be gauged on a conversation meter. The categories I
have described above are pretense, sincerity, accuracy, and authenticity. In pretense, the focus is
to avoid difficulties. One may intentionally lie in order to decrease a threat in the conversation.
In sincerity, one can tend to be brutally honest and knock heads with the other person to get their
opinion across. In this category, the person does not care about hearing the other persons side of
the argument and does not tend to care about the other persons feelings. These two categories are
the lower side of the conversation scale. Our goal is to move into the next two categories. The
third is accuracy, where you can reveal and retrieve facts about each side of the argument and
compare explanations. In this stage, one can start to realize that your side of the argument might
not be right, and the two of you can start to work towards an explanation for each side. The last
category is authenticity. This category is considered to be the gold standard in the conversation
meter. With authenticity, we can clarify the problem that is the source of the argument, and then
