Listen and Lead

Twitter, Halftime and Meetings

Charlie Villanueva's bosses say they are investigating an incident in which he tweeted  at work.

Villanueva is a Milwaukee Buck and his workplace was a locker room during halftime when his team was tied, 41-41, with the Boston Celtics. His Twitter message said, "In da locker room, snuck to post with my twitt. We're playing the Celtics, tie ball game at da half. Coach wants more toughness. I gotta step up."

The Bucks went on to win and Villanueva went on to tweet, "By the way, lets just get the record straight, my halftime twitt had no interference with what goes on regularly during the locker room."

His coach must have disagreed. He soon posted, "Well guys, no more halftime tweets for me -- I'll leave it at that, won't comment on it any further. But I still got love for ya. Stay tune."

But Villanueva couldn;t really resists further comment: "About to take my nap, but I'm looking for some answers here, what's the difference between halftime twitting and halftime interview?" It's a fair question.

While NBA coaches might be concerned about secrets being Tweeted out of the locker room, it is likely they are more concerned with players' heads being out of the game.

Rick Bommelje, 2009-2010 president of the International Listening Association, told me he knew of an executive who had asked his managers to refrain from texting and answering e-mails during meetings because it interfered with their listening. At the next meeting, one of those managers got busy on his crackberry, and the executive told him to leave.

Problem was solved. Managers came to the meetings with fewer distractions.

At my old newspaper, the Detroit Free Press, few editors were quick to pick up on Twitter. One was not, though, and I sometimes saw his posts go up while he was sitting in meetings. (Ironically, this was the year when the newspaper brought down Detroit's mayor with stories about his text messages, which showed he had lied in court.)

Eventually, the newspaper got Twitter fever. The editors trained, they opened Twitter accounts and they began using tags to tie their Tweets together.

As Twitter fever swept the newsroom, the early adopter Tweeted this: "Tweeting throughout a mtg, sitting next to editor, but this time it's encouraged. (I prefer guerilla tweeting tho :) )"

So, which culture listens better, the one in which basketball forwards and leaders Tweet during meetings, or the one in which they are told to put the cellphones down and listen to each other?

International Listening Association's Milwaukee Conference

It is the eve of the International Listening Association's 2009 conference and I have some butterflies.

I am going so that I can listen -- of course -- to people who have made listening and the study of it their life's work.

I am but an amateur who picked up a few things while working in newsrooms.

Here is one thing I have already picked up from the group: We know from common sense that one cannot listen well to another person if he or she does not first respect that person and that they have a valid point of view. We cannot fake people out by miming the actions of real listening.

But if we take deliberate, careful listening into an organizational environment solely to gain information to help us run that organization better, this is fake listening taken to a higher level. The problem is the same -- a lack of respect. And we have that old problem of superimposing our agenda on the speaker's.

So, yes, leaders, listen well to the people in the organization. But don't do it solely for your benefit or the benefit of the organization. It just won't work. You have to listen for the benefit of the speaker, too. And, in the end, doesn't giving the workers a voice help better than just about anything else?

A Pill to Help People Listen Better

At first, I thought the ad was a joke.

"Stage fight?" was superimposed over a photo of a wide-eyed young boy clutching a microphone in a death grip.

Across the bottom of the photo, it said, "Finally, a natural supplement for public speaking."

The Deephaven Nutraceuticals ad touts Bravina, "our blend of nine natural supplements promotes relaxation and concentrates relaxation."

Why am I surprised? Pills to help us sleep, pills to help us remember, pills to help us calm down or stay awake or still our restless legs. Why not a pill that helps us speak? It's just another kind of performance booster.

You can go to the Web site and take a quiz to see if you need this supplement.

One of the questions on the diagnostic survey is, "Do you envision your speech going poorly prior to your public speaking engagement?" Sometimes that happens to me while I am speaking.

I have an idea for the people at Deephaven. It is the listening pill. It helps people listen.

I would make it in two sizes: golf ball and tennis ball. Just stick one of these pills in your mouth when someone is trying to talk to you and you can't help but listen.

Doodling Seems to Help Listening, Recall

Today's issue of the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology reports on a study that says doodling while listening may improve recall. Subjects were given a doodling task while listening to a dull phone message had a 29% improved recall compared to non-doodlers in the study.

To keep doodlers from becoming self conscious, they were asked to shade in shapes on a piecve of paper, rather than to doodle naturally. All of the participants were asked to listen to 2 1/2-minute tape with several names of people and places. They were then asked to write down the names of people going to a party and the names of eight place names that were mentioned. There were 20 doodlers and 20 non-doodlers. The doodlers recalled on average 7.5 names of people and places compared to only 5.8 by the non-doodlers.

None of the participants were told it was a memory test.

While the study did not cover more intense discussions or those held face to face, it suggests that the mere act of taking notes during a conversation may help one maintain focus.

Clinton Listening Tour II

As the United States tries to remake its global image, it has turned its ear to the world.

Lead listener abroad is Hillary Clinton, who began her quest for the U.S. Senate with a listening tour through New York.

The contrast with the previous administration, which withheld listening as a negotiating tactic, is striking.

Here is the Washington Post on Clinton's visit to China, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia.

While Clinton is talking a lot, to be sure, the Post said she she told students at Tokyo University, "My trip here today is to hear your views, because I believe strongly that we learn from listening to one another, and that is, for me, part of what this first trip of mine as secretary of state is about."

NASA YouTube Video

You should watch this YouTube video.

It was made by astronaut Andy Thomas, for a a special "no barriers" cross-generational team at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The idea is to build a more open environment for innovation. The effort, still underway, was started by Center Director Mike Coats, a former astronaut himself.

The idea is to meld experienced workers schooled in the old command-and-control style and youthful workers raised in more open, collaborative environments.

Thomas shot and then produced the video to show what happens when workers with ideas run up against systemic resistance.

Many organizations would be devastated to see themselves parodied this way on an in-house video.

But NASA had already been through a far more devastating experience. NASA manager Wayne Hale wrote about Thomas' video on his blog and then posted it on YouTube. He explained why.

Like many at NASA, he was profoundly affected by revelations that the 1986 explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger might have been avoided if managers had listened to dissenters who had tried to warn them. The system was so good at protecting itself and keeping everyone on task that it deflected or hid the warnings.

More recently, despite NASA's efforts to reform, Hale had seen signs that some of the old ways were intact.

So, he posted a critical, in-house video. He urged readers of his blog to watch the video more than once.

Here it is:

He concluded by writing:

"Since these behaviors are still being practiced at NASA, here is what I believe managers need to do

"1.  Break out of the sandbox.  Even if it is not your area, the agency needs the best ideas to succeed in our goals.  If you have subordinates who have ideas for improving other areas, it is important to get those ideas into the open where they can compete in the marketplace of ideas, or at least get a technical review.

"2.  If subordinate has an idea that has been tried before and didn't work, consider that times may have changed and it might work now or with improvements that you know of.  In the final extremity, your subordinate needs more than the curt dismissal that its been tried before and didn't work -- you need to explain it to them.

"3. Managers at all levels need to provide safe places and times for interaction that skips levels in the chain of command."

Watch the video and ask yourself: What would go into a video about the way things get done inside your organization?

This video did not get much coverage in the mainstream press. One wonders why.

But you can read stories in National Public Radio's Web site, MSNBC or Softpedia.

A Listening Culture

One of the preconditions for effective listening is respect for the speaker.

And leaders who buy into listening do not just want to do it themselves. They want their organizations to have a listening culture.

So, it stands to reason that an organization cannot really develop that kind of culture until the foundation is laid with the creation of a trusting, respectful climate.

If people are off in corners or blaming other departments for what goes wrong. Organizational listening cannot occur. The first step, then, is to eliminate the dread that people feel and their need to engage in blame-gaming. The impetus to take that step is going to come from the top -- the leader.

The leader must get out in front of people, be honest about the situation and invite a few questions and even potshots. The leader's response to brave people who ask hard questions will show whether we are going to have a respectful exchange, or whether we should all scurry back to our corners.

Leaders need not be as concerned about the outspoken staff member's question as they are about their response to it. If they concentrate on their answer, rather than the barbs in the question, they take a big step toward opening up new channels and a new culture.

Listening in Times of Crisis

Over lunch a few weeks ago, Dan Mulhern remarked that listening is expensive.

That observation, or goad, deserves further exploration.

Mulhern believes in listening he sees the pressures that leaders are under in Michigan, where unemployment, home foreclosures and out-migration are at or near the worst in the nation.

Layoffs, buyouts, payless furloughs and increase demand for productivity threaten to push organizations under. The danger is not so much any one of those remedies, but the changes in morale and culture. People withdraw. They blame or envy other divsions. They may become disinterested in particapting. They doubt the organizations, themselves and others. Respect and trust are damaged.

How far off is the tipping point that will push the enterprise into complete failure?

In a time of diminished resources, communication is one of the few resources that leaders have to pull their organizations back from the brink.

By explaining the decisions and being willing to listen to disagreements and suggestions, leaders can actually improve engagement and loyalty.

It does take time, as Mulhern said. And too many leaders respond to crisis by closing their doors and burying their heads in smaller and smaller meetings, working on new strategies and approaches. The leaders feel they are busier than ever as they pile more work on their own backs. To the workers, they seem more isolated and aloof than ever. The workers do not typically know very much more about what the bosses do than the bosses know about them. So a lack of contact appears to be withdrawal.

In times of crisis, leaders need to step into the center of the room, be very honest about the challenges and enlist more of the brains, not fewer.

Does listening use up that most precious resource: time? It does. But when it engages and aligns so many more people in working toward solutions, it is a great invetsment.

Charismatic Listeners

We've all heard about charismatic leaders. Jaime Richards believes hat listeners can be charismatic, too.

Richards, a 20-year teacher and coach working in Fremont, Calif., espouses what he calls charismatic listening. He says he has learned about listening and success in the broader sense by observing kids and parents who really have their acts together.

So, in addition to coaching basketball and volleyball, Richards coaches people on getting more out of their lives and relationships. One way he recommends is through charismatic listening. Charismatic listening, as Richards defines it, means really getting involved with the speaker. His methods evho what we have heard about other forms of engaged listening.

In one of his bi-weekly columns for the Bay area's Argus newspaper, Richards wrote, "Charismatic listeners relax speakers. Their body language and spontaneous remarks help whoever is talking feel comfortable, secure and encouraged to say more. 'That's so true.' 'I love that.' 'That was really good!' The best listeners practically cheerlead. Tense speakers fall in love with supportive listeners.

 "They've learned to ignore simple stutters and small misspeaks. They don't acknowledge every error or correct every flaw. They've figured out that uptight speakers won't want to talk to them — or anyone else. ... The best listeners don't tune out as soon as they feel tired, lost, confused or bored. They've learned that if they don't give up, they'll be rewarded for listening.

"Charismatic listeners like listening and see the value in it. That's why they're good at it."

The difference Richards brings to the conversation about listening is his background as a coach and teacher. His goal is to draw people out, push them, motivate them to do and be more. Charismatic listening is one tool he uses to get there.

Call it what you like, effective listening takes work but is worth it because it surfaces and draws out that reward -- information that couldn't get to on their own.

Richards' Web site is at www.what-it-takes.com.

Location, Location, Location; Listen, Listen, Listen

You have no doubt heard of the Jolly Green Giant, the Keebler Elf and the Pillsbury Doughboy, but you might not know that they are all related. All of them, plus Charlie Tuna, Morris the Cat, the Marlboro Man and other iconic advertising characters all come from the Leo Burnett public relations company.

One Burnett executive in Chicago was Chuck Werle, who had more than 34 years in public relations, and about 18 CEOs.

The best CEOs, Werle said, asked employees what they thought and then listened. Werle believes in listening and rephrases the famous real estate mantra from "Location, location, location." to "Listen, listen listen." He says, "The key to PR is telling management what they need to know, not what they wa\nt to hear." Management won't get that kind of honesty without encouraging it.

Werle recalls being in creative meetings in Chicago when Burnett was developing a slogan or logo to recognize its 50th anniversary. The creative team deadlocked on two ideas. They were so close that top management decided to use both.

Werle thought this went against Burnett's philosophy of presenting its clients with one, strong idea rather than two or three. So, he wrote a memo to Chairman and President John Kinsella. Werle used to call his notes "Nobody asked me, but ..." memos. Werle challenged the no-call on the two campaigns. Kinsella reconvened the group  and told them they would try again and settle on ONE idea.

They chose a Burnett classic, a round, black, soft-lead copy pencil. Old man Burnett had favored the pencils and said that "big ideas come out of big pencils." The 50th anniversary campaign featured a black pencil that bore the legend, "Celebrating 50 years of one great idea."

If you go to the Leo Burnett Web site, you'll find a big, black pencil.