I recently attended a conference on the seven habits of highly effective people. When thinking about what I could take back to my organization, one of the most intriguing concepts centered on the fifth step, “seek first to understand, then to be understood”, a.k.a. listening with intent to understand. This intrigued me for many reasons, some of which were related to our internal organizational effectiveness and others that related to our work product with clients. The latter being that, in the same way we need to listen with the intent to understand, we should really be asking questions with the intent to understand. (If it’s the former you’re interested in, I highly recommend attending a seminar!)
