Listening to Know – ElPropósito3 min de lectura

"Knowing about a thing doesn’t change the nature of that thing"

Photo by Dominik Kempf on Unsplash

Much of what we know stays limited until we put it into practice and turn it into deeds. The true essence of what we know shows up in actions and works that should simply do good and leave the world better than we found it. Hope for a better future comes with decisions, some more far-reaching than others, but decisions all the same. When we’re unsure where to direct our efforts, we can take the wrong path despite our best intentions. How can we apply the tacit, unique knowledge that defines us as human beings and use it to move forward?

We have a natural tendency to solve other people’s problems and overlook the ones happening inside us. Take a boss who believes he’s doing things right by having every answer to every issue his team raises. Deep down, he knows some of those answers can be found within the team. Drawing out a team’s tacit, or potential, knowledge is a real challenge. The first step is a shift in mindset, from giving answers to asking questions. That’s no small thing: we’re used to dispensing "wisdom," and drawing it out of others feels unfamiliar.

"Biting your tongue" is a great first step toward applying what Diogenes put this way: "We have two ears and only one mouth so that we may listen more and talk less." That change in attitude brings a complete change in perspective on how things are and how they look. It’s almost a kind of "enlightenment." We know this because keeping quiet is a natural gift, and still it’s very hard to practice, given our urge to share what we know. So the next big step is making it a habit.

It’s interesting how knowing about something doesn’t necessarily mean we can apply it. What’s good for others is good for us too. So we need to recognize that the listening we need, and others need, is an obligation to put into practice, and it always runs both ways. Listening can be learned. It’s knowledge we can acquire, and every day life gives us the chance to meet someone who practices it constantly, someone who gives off a different kind of wisdom simply because of how well they listen.

By listening we learn, and that learning comes from tacit knowledge, a potential knowledge that lives only in others and emerges when we consciously move from talking to asking, with a deep interest in what others have to tell us.

Warm regards and all the best,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. This week’s VELA will have to wait, since I was traveling for two weeks. Whenever that happens, I stick to writing in my journal and doing my usual reading.

The phrase "Knowing about a thing doesn’t change the nature of that thing" comes from Massimo Pigliucci’s book How to Be a Stoic.

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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