My friend Charlie (our summer camp speaker) posted a great quote from a book he is reading, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive by Patrick Lencioni, that has helped me think through this issue more clearly.
"Talking about a colleague who is not present is not gossip. Gossip requires the intent to hurt someone, and it is almost always accompanied by an unwillingness to confront a person directly with the information being discussed. Ironically, members of cohesive teams are not overly concerned about the prospect of their collegues' discussing them in their absence because they know it is in he best interest of the team. They trust each other, and know that true gossip will not be tolerated."
I talk about people a lot and at times I've wondered if it's gossip. I love that our student ministry team is committed to each other and the best interest of our team.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
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1 comments:
I like that quotation. I also wonder about this issue sometimes because talking about others on topics that you would confront to their face or for their benefit doesn't seem like goosip. Carlie was nice to post that.
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