We sometimes rely on stories to change perspectives and mindsets among our clients and their teams. Hearing a tale seemingly unrelated to the immediate concerns of the day relaxes the listener in a way nothing else can and makes them open to new ideas. I heard a story recently about a pillow:

Once upon a time, there was a guy with a wonderful feather pillow. He loved it! He went into his backyard and opened up the pillow. He wanted to look at the feathers and show them to people so he began to take all of the feathers out of the pillow…

You can guess what happened. A light breeze came along and began to spread the feathers everywhere. Pretty soon the feathers were in his trees and bushes. They were in the neighbor’s yards. They were on his roof and in his gutters. Some floated back into his house. They were all over him. It looked like a warm snow in June!

He worked hard to try and get all the feathers back into the pillow. To this day, 10 years later, he is still trying and failing to get all the feathers back into the pillow. The moral of the story? Words are like feathers in a pillow. You need to be careful what you say, what you take out of the pillow because it is impossible to get them back into the pillow.

In both businesses and families, we have seen feathers taken out of the pillow (words said aloud) that have wounded, lessened, maimed, limited and harmed relationships in some very unintended ways! If we truly love and care for the relationships around us, words are the tools we use to mold and shape those relationships intentionally towards great good!

Some questions to consider:

• Do you think before you speak?

• Do you teach others to be mindful of their words?

• What words have you regretted letting out of the pillow and how do you prevent that from happening in future?

If your or your organization needs navigating and building strong relationships, contact our expert guides at 800-786-4332 or email CClemmer@AppliedVisionWorks.com. It only takes 30 minutes to get started!