No one ever got into trouble listening. This is the safest action one can do in life. If you listen to people and you pay attention to them, then you are bound to learn.
The late Steve Allen, who launched The Tonight Show in 1954, enjoyed involving his audiences in his shows. Often, he would leave the stage and whisper a brief statement to someone sitting in an aisle seat, and ask that person to whisper it to the next person, with the process continuing across the row. The person in the last seat was asked to repeat the statement aloud. At the same time, the original statement was flashed on the screen. Invariably, there was great disparity, leading to much laughter. However, the sobering point it made, again and again, is that we are a nation of non-listeners. In the 1980s, a California based consultant named Ben Joyce had enough. “Listening,” he said, “is a skill having a dreadfully limited number of truly effective practitioners. We are not taught to listen in school, at home or at work. On the contrary, we learn the communications process from authority figures whose specialty seems to be talking. Joyce decided to do something; designing a device he called The Listening Stick. The small wooden stick was imprinted on one side with the words: “Please, will you listen to me?” On the reverse side were the words: “Thank You.” Accompanying it was a detailed instruction brochure, called An Operator’s Manual and a business-card size Quick Use Guide. The plan was to politely hand the stick to so-called listeners, who had the attention span of a flashbulb or listened with a stop watch or quickly took over the speaking role. Sadly, Joyce’s noble experiment had limited success, and we continue to be mostly non-listeners, despite the many advantages accrued to those who have developed strong listening skills. As the late Bernard M. Baruch, and American financier and presidential advisor, noted: “All of the successful people I have known are those who do more listening than talking.”
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AuthorMusings from Gammon Irons. To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind - this is a choice which is possible for us all; and surely a good haven to sail. Archives
February 2020
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