You haven´t heard a word I said: getting managers to listen

As we approach the year 2000, corporate America is focused on improving communications; yet most of the effort is directed toward improving writing and speaking. This paper describes training to encourage and improve better listening skills and attitudes. Workshops to improve interpersonal communications, negotiation, and supervisory skills have been offered to employees for a number of years. The training sessions were different from others in that they were wholly devoted to learning about listening, and managers participated in the design of the learning experiences by using case material drawn from their work situations. This focused their attention on why listening is an important part of good management, and enabled them to understand that it is their responsibility to improve their listening behavior and skills