Thanks to a tip from a blogger in the family, I recently learned about something called Postel’s Law. In 1981, internet guru and professor of computer science Jon Postel formulated what’s called Postel’s Law: “Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others” (often reworded as "be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you receive"). He was encouraging computer engineers to build systems that can understand each other, “to write code that could ‘speak’ as clearly as possible yet ‘listen’ to the widest possible range of other speakers, including those who do not conform perfectly to the rules of the road,” according to NY Times technology writer Mattathias Schwartz.

There’s a lesson in there for managers. Schwartz says, “The human equivalent of this robustness is a combination of eloquence and tolerance — the spirit of good conversation.”

Eloquence: speaking as clearly and crisply as possible, striving to communicate concise, unambiguous messages.

Tolerance: listening without judging; listening without formulating your own rebuttal; listening with patience and empathy, even when – especially when – the other person isn’t doing a very good job of communicating, or, as Schwartz says, “conforming perfectly to the rules of the road.”

Engineers who followed Postel’s Law created an opportunity for billions of computers to connect across the globe. Managers who follow Postel’s Law in their conversations can create organizations where people can connect in a profound way and collaborate to make great things happen for their organizations.

What do you think? How can business leaders learn to "be conservative in what you send, be liberal in what you receive"? How can that approach help us connect across the globe, across the board room, across the kitchen table?