Exec: "But Tom, how do we find out what it is that people really want?"
Tom (after a long pause and a lot of thought—and I'm not kidding): "Ask
'em."
Of course I acknowledged that it's not so easy as that. If you are a
close-to-the-vest sort, folks will wonder what your true agenda is—or
what seminar you're just back from. So you'll just have to practice and
be persistent. (And actually care about what you hear!) I recalled this
little exchange when, last night at Georgetown's Barnes & Noble
, I happened across /Listening Is An Act
of Love: A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project/ ,
by Dave Isay.
Isay, MacArthur Fellowship winner
among many other things, started StoryCorps;
in 2003. Guiding principles are:
* "Our stories—the stories of everyday people—are as interesting and
important as the celebrity stories we are bombarded with ...
* "If we take the time to listen, we'll find wisdom, wonder and
poetry in the lives and stories of the people all around us.
* "We all want to know our lives have mattered ...
* "Listening is an act of love."
I probably bought the book because I randomly opened it at page 60, a
5-pager titled "Ken Kobus, 58, tells his friend Ron Baraff, 42, about
making steel." It was wonderful, in the truest—filled with wonder—sense
of that wonderful, if overused, word. (An equally compelling 2-pager on
Samuel Black, a Cincinnati public school teacher, followed. Etc.)
I loved the stories—and truly /loved/ the "Listening is an act of love"
idea. To "get" the idea, I think you must truly ponder the meaning of
"love" as used here. Listening is probably-doubtless the premier "act of
love." True for the husband or wife or preacher or doctor*—and, I'd
contend, equally true for the IS project leader heading a 6-person team.
(*Docs are notoriously lousy listeners, but that's another day's
comment.) In fact it seems to me that "listening is the ultimate
leadership skill" ("listening with love"?) is an idea, and a practical
idea at that, well worth pondering—and operationalizing.
As I say all this, I am of course mostly parroting Matthew Kelly, author
of /The Dream Manager/
and our recent Cool Friend . He
contends that we are all driven by our dreams, and if leaders make a
"strategic" commitment to discovering the dreams of their followers, and
then provide opportunities to pursue those dreams (shape the
organization's culture around the pursuit of those dreams),
"organizational effectiveness" and "customer satisfaction" will vault to
the top of the league tables.
So: the Six Big Words I take from the above are:
Ask.
Listen.
Story.
Dream.
Universal.
Love
I'll say more later, but for now, /write/ the Six Words on a 3X5 card,
/stick/ it in your pocket, /read/ it before—and after—your next meeting
or phone call or even email, and ponder it.
Lemme know if it makes sense-works.
Quoted from Tom Peters' Blog
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