53 / 55

Differences that change the conversation

List versus diagram

Lista a diagram

Tomasz records the agreement as a list, while Amira uses a dependency diagram. Different formats look like a disagreement about content even though they show much of the same thing.

Download the full comicPNGSVGPPTX
Tomasz, Amira in panel 1 of List versus diagram.AFTER THE MEETING
These are the decisions we made.
This list leaves out the dependencies between the elements.
Tomasz, Amira in panel 2 of List versus diagram.
The diagram doesn’t show the order of decisions.
The list doesn’t show what depends on what.
Tomasz, Amira in panel 3 of List versus diagram.
She’s changing what we agreed.
He’s flattening what we agreed.
Tomasz, Amira in panel 4 of List versus diagram.
This block is your points two, three and four.
And this is exactly my condition from point five.
Tomasz, Amira in panel 5 of List versus diagram.
So most of the fight was about the representation.
And the representation made us distrust the content.
Em, the Empatyzer coach
Tomasz trusts sequences while Amira trusts relationships between elements. As a result, each treats their own format as proof of correct thinking until putting the two side by side reveals that much of the content dispute was really a representation dispute. Place both formats side by side and map their elements one to one before deciding that the content has changed.