In life you will come across an endless variety of personalities. This can be within your family, your friends, at work, and so on. You can successfully make it through any conversation with anyone at any event by practicing a few tips:
Talk about general topics you may have in common like books, TV shows, or upcoming events.
Change all sensitive subjects in the conversation and stay away from hot topic issues for example, politics.
Regardless of their responses to the questions, practice respective tones. Keep in mind that this is their point of view and it’s OK that it may not match yours.
Be a good listener. Listening to others fully and not just waiting for your turn to talk is a good skill to have. When you allow others to talk, it helps them to feel more at ease and valued because you are giving them attention.
Acknowledge their ideas. This can be with a head nod, a positive statement or restating their idea then adding additional commentary if you choose to do so.
If you sense a conflict arising in your conversation, you can distract them with a task, for example, “let’s go get some water” or “can we go sit over there”, redirecting their attention for a few moments may help their disagreement to subside; giving you an opportunity to change the subjects or disengage from the conversation.
So if you have a family gathering, work party or find yourself in a position of needing to have a conversation with someone you may have a different opinion from, it is possible to have a civil conversation and you may even enjoy yourself!