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Preparation is key to holding ‘crucial conversations’

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Jag Dosanjh

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — In his role as Allergan’s senior vice president of specialty therapeutics, Jag Dosanjh conducts “crucial conversations” every day.

These conversations are often uncomfortable. “Stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run high,” Dosanjh said in a presentation at the Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium.

Knowing that a level of conflict is likely between the parties engaging in these conversations, navigating those discussions takes “effort, thought and preparation,” he said.

“It’s not going to become comfortable. You just have to recognize that it’s uncomfortable,” he said.

To prepare for those crucial conversations, Dosanjh applies three principles: intent not content, context not content and consideration not contention.

First, Dosanjh applies an intention to listen to the opposing point of view. With this intent to listen, he hears the other arguments and uses them as building blocks for integration of his own point of view.

Second, he applies context to the conversation. Success can be achieved through delivery of excellence in content, he said, but becoming a successful leader means putting that content into context.

“You’ll never be a leader without content, but it’s the context that propels you, the ability to put your argument into the framework that you’re trying to deal with,” Dosanjh said.

Third, in these crucial conversations, there is some disagreement, but the opposing point of view needs to be considered and understood, he said.

“Consideration means understanding the other person’s perspective, not that you agree with it,” he said. “Because if you can prosecute the other perspective as well as you can prosecute your own, you have a much stronger way of moving forward because you know how to navigate the other person’s argument.” – by Patricia Nale, ELS

Reference:

Dosanjh J. How to have crucial conversations. Presented at: Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium; Aug. 22-25, 2019; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Disclosure: Dosanjh reports no relevant financial disclosures.