Common Ground

By Jesse Atwell

Finding common ground is an important element of building trust. And building trust is the fundamental building block of productivity, enhancing cooperation between team members.

But what qualifies as common ground?

After all, we’re all humans and must deal with the symphony of problems that comes along with being alive. Is that common ground? Probably not, but keep digging….

Do both of you:

• live in the same city?
• eat the same diet?
• work in the same industry?
• like the same art?
• drink the same coffee?
• vote for the same president?
• read the same books?
• hate the same boss?
• pray to the same god?
• have the same disease?
• struggle with addiction?
• love the same girl?

If you believe you don’t have common ground with someone, odds are you’re not looking deep enough.

We do, after all, share 96% of our DNA with chimps.

Surely you can find common ground with Ted in Accounting who screwed up your reimbursement check…