I’m doing this blogging A to Z thing. Today is L.
I don’t remember the context or even if he was speaking to me directly at the time, but at some point when I was a young teenager, I heard my father say something to the effect of “You’re not going to learn anything if you keep talking,” which I think was his polite way of telling someone to “STFU and listen.” And it stuck with me, just lodged in the back of my head somewhere with other important stuff like tipping and ironing.
I’ve worked in technology-related communications for most of my adult life, mostly as a writer and editor. Along the way, I’ve also taught computer classes, done business analysis, managed projects, and worked in tech support. Effective listening is key to performing any of those jobs successfully. In some ways, it’s important to just about any job where humans interact.
And yet…
Over the years I’ve been in a number of meetings where everyone was talking and no one was listening and as a result, nothing got done. Or worse, things were done incorrectly. Rehashing one such conference call with a colleague led to the home-made (well, office-made) sign pictured above, which hangs over my desk – actually right over my phone.
People tend to blame our general collective inability or unwillingness to listen when other people are speaking on the prevalence of electronic distractions. I don’t know when Stephen Covey made that statement, but a quick Google search will show you that people have been making similar comments for a very long time – long before cell phones and iPads started showing up on conference room tables.
That said, the electronics are a problem. People say that they can multi-task, but science says you can’t. When you’re reading e-mails, you’re not listening to what’s going on in the room no matter how much you try to convince yourself you are. Also, you can’t hold your liquor as well as you think you can. Sorry – that’s just the way it is.
I hope someday my daughter recalls hearing from me that lesson I first learned from my father. Of course, she’ll probably remember the STFU version. I think I’m pretty good at listening, but I struggle with polite.
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