Disastrous listening.

Less than 3 minutes read.

Everyone knows about the Titanic. Huge ship, iceberg, boom – disaster. But what's often missed is that they got tons of warnings about ice and nobody listened. The radio guys were passing them along, but the captain, he didn't seem to listen, you could say he iced the radio operators. (Thank you). He changed course a bit, but didn't slow down. Plus, those radio guys were swamped with “important” messages from passengers – like, "Hey, Ethel, having a great time!" – the really important messages were not listened to; like the one about the massive ice field that never even made it to the bridge. Not just bad listening, but also selective listening in not picking up what is really important. Basically, they ignored the warnings from other ships and didn't really try to understand what they meant, and definitely didn't do anything about it. So, yeah, best listen if you don't want your unsinkable ship to hit an iceberg.

In 1977, 65 years after the Titanic, two planes collided in Tenerife, Spain, another instance of disastrous listening. A KLM plane was taxiing, getting ready for take-off, and a Pan Am plane was right behind it. The Pan Am pilot was confused about which exit to take, and the tower gave them directions that were totally unclear. The first listening fail. Then, the KLM cockpit radioed that they were ready for take-off. The captain heard something that made him think they were good to go, and the tower guy said "Okay," which, in the fog and with some other radio interference, sounded like a confirmation. The second listening fail. Meanwhile, the Pan Am plane was still on the runway! Nobody was listening and communication was not clear. The result was disastrous.

These are extreme examples of not listening and bad communication. You’re probably not going to sink a ship or crash two planes. However, there could be missed deadlines, children left at after school care, an unhappy partner. Getting good at listening, really listening, is important for everybody, the person talking and the person listening. It's about getting feedback, actually paying attention to it, and showing everyone that you value what they have to say. Listen up nobody wants an iceberg arriving in their cabin.