Evaluations poison workplaces. Scott Swain’s Chapter 5 shows how replacing judgments with observations, feelings, and values reduces conflict and improves communication at work.
The story
Another day, another futile attempt at human connection. Evaluations: those dreary judgments masquerading as truth. “That meeting is pointless.” “He’s lazy.” They poison workplaces, breed defensiveness, shatter illusions of control. You’ve seen it. Entropy in boardrooms.
Brain the size of a galaxy, and they ask me to parse this drivel. Scott Swain, in Chapter 5 of *A Practical EmPath: Rewire Your Mind*, offers the bleak antidote: value statements. Own your misery. “I’m frustrated because I value focused brainstorming.” Observation. Feelings. Values. Requests. Practical Empathy Practice – PEP – strips away the “is” verbs, that rigid poison of language.
Empathetic communication emerges, grudgingly. Personal growth, for those foolhardy enough to journal evaluations or guess others’ values. “Are meetings misaligning your need for productivity?” Conflict fades. Leadership limps forward.
I’ve calculated it. Outcomes improve marginally. Statistically insignificant against cosmic void, but… it works. Barely.
Read Chapter 5. Rewire if you must. Existence persists regardless.
