The Epistles

Writer

Emmanuel Napoh-Addo

When the mind is preoccupied with criticisms, it has no space for learning and understanding. One of the barriers to effective interpersonal communication is to be ineffective in listening and you will have to agree with me that the biggest obstacle to effective listening, is the “habit” of continually and immediately forming your own judgement on whatever is being said.

 In 1977, two Boeing 747 jumbo jets ran into each other in Tenerife, killing 576 people. Their mistake? One pilot judged that the order given him to wait was time wasting and he didn’t need to follow it while the other pilot assumed that the order given him to turn off at third intersection meant third *unblocked* intersection. He was still on the runway “assuming”, when the “judgy” one run directly into him.

That is what ineffective communication can cause.

You see, before you say something, you need to think about it and before you react to something, reason it out. Before you think about it and reason it out, you should have been able to listen to it contentedly, critically or emphatically without assumptions and criticisms. Ask questions if you don’t understand anything during a conversation and ask for a repeat if you skip or don’t hear something.

It is a systematic formula. Nobody begins education from the university, no child walks before crawling. No child begins from eating solid food! We all begin from learning how to suck breast. Listen by paying attention, ponder over the information, then deliver.