"If you want people to listen to you, you have to listen to them. If
you hope people will change how they live, you have to know how they
live. If you want people to see you, you have to sit down with them
eye to eye." While I don't know the name of the peace worker in India
who made this statement, it has been a guiding principle in my own
work. I believe listening to people can help me change the world and I
think this quote summarizes why.
I think listening to others is one of the most under-rated and underused skills a person can have. Both Smith and Polak specifically talk about listening, and without listening to what local people have to say, many of the innovations Zuckerman discusses won't work.
Listening isn't a passive exercise where one nods their head and mmmmm's agreement. Listening doesn't mean looking at your watch or noticing the cars going by or focusing on your rumbling tummy - although it is good to be aware of these things at times. Listening doesn't mean jumping in to finish the speaker's thought because you have ADHD or another appointment with someone you believe to be more important.
Listening requires your full attention - ears on what the person is saying and eyes on what the person is doing. Listening requires asking probing questions to help the speaker flesh out their idea. Listening requires you treat everyone as important because ultimately they are important - regardless of age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, race, sexual preference, religion, economic status, etc.. The person you are listening to could stimulate you to think in a new way, provide information that you would otherwise not have accessed, collaborate with you on the solution to a problem, or just give you support when you need it most because that one time you listened to them. Really listened to them.
When you listen, really listen to someone, they will share with you bits and pieces of information about themselves, their world, and how they see the world. When pieced together with other information you have received from others, you can build a fuller picture of a problem's scope. Sometimes the information you gather from listening hints at solutions, while other times states possible solutions outright.
Furthermore, people tell you lots when they speak with you. More than just who they are. You can learn about where they come from, who they know, what they are capable of, and what they know, as well as their dreams and hopes. When you share this way with others you build a network of people having different skills and knowledges and connections that you can collaborate with as you seek solutions to mutual problems.
Lastly, listening to others when you are collecting information to problem solve helps you find solutions that are locally appropriate and sustainable. Handing out bicycles to improve transportation in the middle of the Sahara doesn't make sense if there are no paved roads. Local people might prefer camels - which can go long periods without water, haul a lot of stuff, and don't need tarmac. Furthermore, water quality might be the most important issue, not transportation. But really listening would have told us that.
Listening to local people when you ask "What sorts of problems are you experiencing? What sorts of resources (infrastructure, local knowledge, access to resources) do you have available?" is key. You cannot improve people's quality of life, transform the way people live, and change the world, if you don't stop and listen to what they have to tell you about how things currently are. And they certainly won't listen to anything you have to say, if you don't listen to them first.
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