{"id":1705,"date":"2022-06-08T08:24:16","date_gmt":"2022-06-08T12:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1705"},"modified":"2022-06-08T08:24:54","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T12:24:54","slug":"two-miraculous-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/08\/two-miraculous-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Miraculous Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Small talk is a big deal.
 
More than a decade and a half ago, Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the most highly regarded (and typically \u201cbuttoned-up\u201d) east coast law firms, was experiencing a culture crisis.  Its annual staff turnover was an alarming 30%, and when the journal American Lawyer<\/em> published its review of mid-level associates, S & C ranked almost dead last amongst the 163 firms surveyed.
 
In 2006 Sullivan & Cromwell\u2019s partners made a decision.  They would introduce two words into everyday workplace conversation:
 
Please<\/em> and thank-you. <\/em>
 
Senior partners, instead of striding through the office on their way to their next oh-so-important meeting, began to stop and talk with junior associates.  They said hello in elevators.  They expressed gratitude for excellent work.  They asked politely if associates could stay on late for urgent meetings, instead of expecting that they automatically comply with every demand.
 
The iceberg began to melt.  The next American Lawyer <\/em>review rated Sullivan & Cromwell first <\/em>amongst NYC law firm employers.
 
What\u2019s amazing, of course, was the cost of this change of strategy.  Not a dime. <\/em>
 
All it cost was the pride of those who had concluded, for whatever reason, that \u201cwe don\u2019t have to slow down and be nice to everyone here.\u201d
 
Carol Kinsey Goman (The Nonverbal Advantage<\/em>) reports that it takes approximately seven seconds for us to conclude how we feel about someone we have just met.  That means the first few moments of an encounter matter more than we know.
 
\u201cOnce someone mentally labels you as \u2018likeable\u2019 or \u2018unlikeable,\u2019\u201d writes Goman, \u201ceverything else you do will be viewed through that filter.  If someone likes you, she\u2019ll look for the best in you.  If she doesn\u2019t like you, she\u2019ll suspect devious motives in all your actions.\u201d
 
Dr. Thomas Harrell, a Stanford University professor, has spent years tracking a group of MBAs after graduation.  Which of them have done the best in their business careers?  Grade point averages seem to have mattered very little.  The real predictor of success has been their ability and willingness to enter into conversation with others.
 
It\u2019s no secret that the early church was a surprising, even shocking, innovation.  The ancient world had never before seen small gatherings of people who might otherwise be strangers to one another \u2013 except for their common conviction that imitating Jesus was the key to the good life. 
 
Speech was an essential part of creating these \u201cnew communities.\u201d 
 
Paul the apostle wrote, for instance, \u201cLet your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you know how to answer everyone\u201d (Colossians 4:6). 
 
Salt was a preservative, a symbol of purity, and the Mediterranean world\u2019s most important flavor enhancer.  Paul was saying, \u201cGo out of your way to talk to other people in such a way that your very words make their day.\u201d
 
Smiles, handshakes, nods, warm greetings, \u201cplease,\u201d \u201cthank-you,\u201d and pausing to give someone our full attention can have an almost miraculous effect.
 
Unsurprisingly, for every generation and culture, it\u2019s the only decent way to live.

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Small talk is a big deal. More than a decade and a half ago, Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the most highly regarded (and typically \u201cbuttoned-up\u201d) east coast law firms, was experiencing a culture crisis.  Its annual staff turnover was an alarming 30%, and when the journal American Lawyer published its review of mid-level associates, S & C ranked almost dead… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[280],"class_list":["post-1705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-speech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1708,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions\/1708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}