Mike Domitrz argues that interrupting colleagues kills efficiency by cutting off ideas before they're fully formed. Instead of dismissing someone mid-thought, acknowledge their contribution, recognize past struggles on the topic, and invite them to help solve it. This shift from disrespect to collaboration makes work culture stronger.
Efficiency is lost when pain is caused. We all interrupt other people probably at some point or another. We might not do it often, some of us might do it often, but we have to acknowledge it. It's highly disrespectful. Think about what that says to the other person when I interrupt you. Now I might know the next 10 seconds you're going to say. I might, I might be right about that. I don't know the next minute. I don't know if you're going to take it a different direction. The moment I interrupt you, I cut off Your brilliance. I cut off your value of thought, and that's rude and it's disrespectful. Have you ever said to somebody, oh, we've done that before? Well, what'd you just say about their idea? It's useless. We've done that before. Your idea is useless. That's what we're saying to them versus, oh, you know, I'm so glad you brought that up 'cause we have struggled with that in the past, and here's what we have not been able to overcome. Could you maybe try to think about ways you could help us overcome that? Now they hear their idea as a potential solution.
