Funny how new perspectives come up when you least expect it, like when chatting with a new contact…
I’ve often explained “relationship mastery” (the subject and title of my book) as taking an attitude of continual learning about interpersonal relationship skills. OK, so a high-ish level of skill is probably presupposed too, and that’s where most understandings of the word start.
Here’s where my new friend comes in: I give my usual explanation of mastery, and then…
“Ah yes, I get it,” he says, “it’s about learning to learn about relationships,” drawing on a phrase from the philosophy around learning organizations—Chris Argyris et al.
That is another way of putting it…
Relationship Mastery means learning to learn about relationships. Not necessarily being good at them on every occasion, but good at learning to learn about them.
That was worth a coffee.