Why is it that you can meet some people and immediately feel a connection whereas with others, even if you spent 10 days in their company, you’d walk away without any sense of commonality.
Contrary to what some of you are probably thinking, the answer to the people you feel a connection with is not one of the following:
[A] They’re female.
[B] They’re hot.
[C] They support Nottingham Forest.
And for the record, ‘connection’ is not a euphemism for ‘want to shag’ … I mean that you just feel you’re ‘in sync’ even if your backgrounds, views and experiences are wildly different.
Mind you, I find it even stranger how people suddenly act like they’ve met a long-lost brother/sister when they find out they share the same horoscope sign or something.
Anyway the reason I say this is because of all the people I’ve met at the Microsoft thing, there was one person I walked away from feeling I’d met someone very special and another where I walked away hoping to god I’d never cross their path again.
In both cases we talked about similar things, had similar views … and yet one left me feeling good while the other left me feeling relieved they’d gone – and judging by their face – the feeling was entirely mutual.
Now I am sure there are lots of reasons for this – reasons a whole bunch of clever people with impressive job titles could tell me about – but the thing is, I am find it fascinating that I can dislike someone as powerfully as I can like someone in what was nothing more than the blink of an eye which means that there must be a whole host of prejudices and negative frames-of-reference lying dormant in my head, only revealing themselves when certain circumstances come to the fore.
I hope that I am not alone in this attitude … though if I am … it is a valuable lesson to remember that regardless what research may tell you, people make their choices and decisions through incredibly complex and personal lenses and so if you want to make sure you communicate a message in a manner that stands a chance of having a positive effect … you’d better know how to convey your message, not just what you have to convey.