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My good friend and colleague Jodie has started blogging. I have been prodding her for over a year now to share the amazing stuff she is doing with the world. And man she does not disappoint. I’ve been really enjoying reading her posts over the last few weeks.

Jodie has spent a lot of time studying with Robert Gass who is a guru of thoughtful leadership and organizational change. I’ve been hearing about his teachings from Jodie, but more amazingly I’ve been watching her in action in work for ONE/Northwest. I’ve been really impressed at how Jodie engages people and groups in such an authentic way, always making you know you’re getting her full attention.

My favorite posts so far have been the ones on listening. Oh, and the one on socks.

But back to listening. I’m an analyzer, so when I’m talking with you, I’m listening, but I’m really analyzing–taking what you’re saying and trying to make sense out of it. Trying to solve problems that you’re talking about. Trying to synthesize that and give you something back that will help you. But that’s not really listening.

Before we had our first child, my wife and I were lucky enough to take part in Becoming Parents–a research study at the University of Washington School of Nursing. The study asked a simple question: Can we lower the divorce rate for new parents by helping them strengthen their couple relationship before their first child arrives and makes everything harder?

In the classes we attended, Pam Jordan talked about techniques for problem solving. She told us about ways to work as a couple to come to a shared decision on a problem, maintaining respect in the process. But more importantly she said this–most times you won’t need to do problem solving if you just talk about the problem. Most times that’s all people really need is to talk about their problem and know that the other party is really hearing them.

And I’ve seen it in action in my relationship with my wife. Both of us will often think we have a problem we need to work out, but when we tell our story and the other is really listening, often the problem melts away. It’s pretty amazing. And it took a bit of practice (which continues, no doubt) to get there.

So I’m really digging Jodie’s posts on listening, and seeing how it applies to work as well as home. And while in-person time is best, I’m very pleased to receive bits of Jodie wisdom delivered right to me via the Internets in between the times I get to see her at ONE/Northwest function. Thanks Jodie for jumping into the blog-o-nets and adding your fresh voice!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 9:11 am and is filed under Misc. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.