Saturday, May 17, 2025

D.L. Gardner: Listen and Understand

Jesus said, "Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it shall be measured to you; and more shall be given you besides." Mark 4:24

McGraw Hill’s textbook, The Art of Public Speaking by Stephen Lucas, includes a whole chapter on “listening.” Lucas wrote, “Although most people listen poorly, there are exceptions. Top-flight business executives, successful politicians, brilliant terachers — nearly all are excellent listeners."

Interestingly, those who have worked closely with President Trump describe him as a good listener who listens to everyone.

Lucas goes on to write,"According to one study, more than 60 percent of errors made in business come from poor listening. When business managers are asked to rank-order the communications skills most crucial to their jobs, they usually rank listening number one.”

Listening by itself is not beneficial unless it’s followed by understanding. Most people listen to reply, not to understand. Those who listen to reply are more apt to misunderstand and to disagree.

Have you ever witnessed, read, or seen something that confirms what you’ve always believed? Sure! Afterward have you ever learned from clear evidence that your memory of that “something” was not accurate? That’s called long-term memory distortion. It’s not uncommon.

A friend and I were discussing what we might learn from declassified documents of JFK’s, MLK’s, and RFK’s assassinations. We had read a post on Facebook by someone who confidently stated he always knew who killed JFK. He was really angry and turned his anger toward all the "lies" we hear today.

We soon found evidence of misinformation in the writer’s rant and concluded something was amiss, even though we had believed evidence that “proved” JFK’s assassination was not the result of one man acting alone.

Then my friend told me a story about a baseball game between Notre Dame and our beloved MSU Bulldogs in 2000. He vividly remembered a terrible collision at home plate that was illegal. My friend said, “From then on, every time he came to bat, there was a storm of boos and jeers from the home crowd.”

My friend, a fellow faculty member here at MSU, then confessed, “For years, I told the story in class, that [the Notre Dame player] rounded third base, saw we had him dead to rights, and took the only out he could think of, absolutely smashing into our catcher.”

After a pause, my friend told me his memory of the play was exactly opposite of what he had believed. In the 2000 game one of our baserunners plowed into the Notre Dame catcher in a great collision. In 2021 we played Notre Dame at home during our National Championship run, and the national press wrote about the collision at home plate in 2000. My friend was horrified that he had not only misremembered the event, but that for 21 years he had told his students the wrong story.

Remembering and believing are married. Why do we believe what we believe? Do we critically examine what we witness and hear? Do we listen to understand? Is anger quicker than our own understanding? Anger blinds reason and hides truth.

“But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” James 1:19-20

Daniel L. Gardner is a columnist who lives in Starkville, MS. You may contact him at PJandMe2@gmail.com.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know people who lie, cheat, steal and got handed a golden goose. It made them crooks that were lucky, not necessarily successful, but crooks.

Anonymous said...

You obviously Have heard or understood and word said by the current occupant of the White House.

Matthew 13:15 states: "For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them." This verse reflects the spiritual blindness of the people, indicating a refusal to recognize the truth." Take your own advice lest you become one of the "Brood of vipers and hypocrites. Too Late.

Anonymous said...

If Gardner had deleted the paragraph beginning with "Lucas goes on to write..." his observation regarding our president would make lots of sense. Otherwise a waste of time.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if DL believes that Walmart should just eat the tariffs as Trump has suggested ? What should Walmart tell their shareholders ?

Anonymous said...

@3:24 Americans have made us wealthy and it is time to do what it takes to stick to our company mission statement to save people money so that they can live better because we believe that doing so is an investment in America.

Anonymous said...

4:10 You are kidding right?

Anonymous said...

@4:10 pass that joint, Walmarts mission is to return income for their investors

Anonymous said...

Is Trump going to listen when the poor folks in Kentucky devastated by tornados call for help? When Arkansas screamed for help, he left them hanging.

Anonymous said...

4:48 & 5:26 I have an MBA and Walmart has been in the loss-leader business for a long time. They will sell a Chinese 4K TV for $100 so you will also buy the PlayStation5 GTA 6 bundle from them for $600

Anonymous said...

Marketing 101, when you sell that bundle you increase you margins, your not giving anything away.

Just a normal dude said...

As I write this, there are nine comments to this post. Four comments are anti-Trump screeds, one of which, out of thin air, pulls Wal-Mart into the discussion. Next is an apparent Wal-Mart insider/employee who politely informs the anti-Wal-Mart imbecile of Wal-Mart's mission statement. Two dopeheads show up begging for somebody else's dope (Get a job and bring your own, beggars!), and a MBA appears politely informing the imbecile of an important part of Wal-Mart's business strategy. It is unclear what the very first comment is referencing due to its incoherence, but it might be another anti-Trump screed. Now, I show up to point out the post was about listening comprehension. Let's give Gardner some credit for taking time to instruct the JJ community on the benefits of listening comprehension since reading comprehension is batting less than .500 here.

PS - It wasn't about Trump!

Krusatyr said...

Re: Walmart
They and other retailers could pass along a temporary add-on Tarriff fee on Chinese goods, perhaps. As for listening and anger, no need to listen to some, like Lamumba, Schumer, Comey, Pelosi, MSM and most other democrats, their history of lies and obfuscation precede them.
And Anger relieves stress.

Anonymous said...

I have worked with Walmart as a Broker for over 30years. Trust me there is no such thing as a lost leader in their marketing program, they barely sell at cost and only do so with meat and other foods that are code dated. It’s a for profit business. They have never wavered from Sam’s mission to make money.

Anonymous said...

You're right, there's no such thing as a 'lost' leader - but a loss leader, uhmm yeah.


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