The word “communication” is often overused, yet undervalued and taken for granted...

I got together with Joe Hendley who is a Sales Coach and Consultant for his own firm Prometheus, and he passionately drives the topic of communication, the psychology behind it, and the tools around it amongst other things.

One of the things we were discussing was about I-It, I-You, and I-Thou. which by the way there is a great book that talks about it, “Interpersonal Communications by Julia T Wood”

In I-It we treat others impersonally, almost as objects. A lot of the times salespeople get treated like an It or waiters or people living in the streets

In I-You which accounts for most of our interactions we acknowledge one another yet we don’t fully engage each other as individuals

And I-Thou is the rarest kind of relationship and the highest form of human dialogue because each person affirms the other as cherished and unique

We can only have so many I-Thou around us because of the level of effort, time and deeper connection one has with the other person

Though one thing that gets me is that too often we treat others like objects that is clear, so in all reality can we get rid of having I-It communications?

You can find Joe on below links:

https://www.prometheus-cs.co.uk/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joehendley/