Are you stuck in movie logic?

This article should be included in every Professional Development program. This is excellent advice.

I live in an area of the midwest United States where nearly _everybody_ is kind, but severely conflict averse... To the point where it becomes difficult to gauge true intentions. Lack of clarity on everybody's priorities make work far more difficult than it needs to be because everyone here are people pleasers who don't know how to say "no" or "I don't like that".

My mother's side of the family was from the Midwest.

Super polite, agreeable, but almost impossible to nail down with clear communication as to how they felt or what they wanted.

During reunions with that family, it was nearly impossible to get them to say where they wanted to go out to eat.