• It is true—each story has at least two sides of the story and sometimes many more.
• Save your reaction until you have all sides of the story.
• Remember that your spouse, children, parent or best friend probably don’t have all sides of the story. Be careful not to allow their perspective to be your only input.
• Be careful not to allow the first or last story you heard to weigh to heavily in your judgement. Many times the most accurate view of the story is a combination of several perspectives.
• Asking questions and listening is the only way to keep hearing more sides of the story.

Opening Questions

1. Have you ever been unjustly punished?
2. With humans as our judges, we can all remember times where a parent, teacher, or boss jumped to conclusions based on just part of the story.
3. What is the value of both sides of the story or the danger of just one side?
4. Value—justice, mercy, understanding, wisdom; danger—poor judgment, improper reaction, bad decisions, action based on ignorance.

Closing Thoughts

• Your observations are just one side of the story. Don’t rely on just what you see.
• Create a culture of easy input or sharing. Your goal is to be able to collect many perspectives fairly quickly.
• At some point hard decisions are necessary. Don’t let the constant desire for more input become the excuse for not make a difficult choice.