Know the Person

https://erikbrewer.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/practice-what-you-preach-its-all-about-personal-relationships/

Getting to know the human being sitting in that meeting with you has a lot of value. When we see the other meeting attendees as people with real experiences, emotions and values, we are more likely to trust their intentions, to be more flexible in trying to understand their point of view, for example. If they really aren’t that different from us in their experiences, they probably aren’t that much different than us in their goals and desires. Given this view that the other person is more like us we are more likely to go into difficult places, to have tough conversations, to have healthy conflict. Having a personal relationship with the person makes having the professional one much easier.