Streets of Fire

Some things written by Jeff Kelley, a man in Richmond, Va. He likes aircraft carriers but doesn't really know the intricacies of them (weight, length, etc.)

Sidebars

Decided I want to work more sidebars into my daily life. I rarely use this tool, which hails from the courtroom and is defined as a request for a private conversation while in the company of others, and outside of everyone else’s earshot. Sidebars are a great asset to have in your communications arsenal. How can you effectively use a sidebar?

Say you’re having a work meeting with three or more people. It’s getting pretty serious and complex, like about budgets or revenue or clients or whatever. “Sidebar,” you interrupt, and pull over a coworker. You scoot over anywhere from four to six feet away, put on your “business talk” face, then start talking about pretzels or the hot new barista at Starbucks instead.

You’re asked to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen and fold the laundry. “Sidebar,” you say to the dog, and then you go watch TV together. 

A dear friend is telling you that his or her mom or someone close to him or her died. “Sidebar,” you say, turning to someone else but, not seeing anyone nearby, you run away as fast as possible.

Sidebars can be very practical conversation tools, but only if used properly as outlined above.

  1. objectivegiant reblogged this from jephkelley
  2. sarcastickristi said: I use sidebars when cops pull me over. “Sidebar”, I’ll say to the person in the passenger seat. And then drive off.
  3. jephkelley posted this