HEARING MAY NOT BE THE PROBLEM
Jed Harris, the stubborn producer of Our Town and other plays, became convinced he was losing his hearing. He went to a specialist who gave him a thorough checkup. The doctor pulled out a gold timepiece and asked, “Can you hear this ticking?” Harris said, “Of course.” The specialist walked to the door and held up the watch again. “Now can you hear it?” Harris concentrated and said, “Yes, I can hear it clearly.” The doctor walked out the door into the next room and said, “Can you hear it now?” He said, “Yes.” The doctor said, “Mr. Harris, there is nothing wrong with your hearing. You just don’t listen.” The problem in most failures of communication is that we fail to listen. We are thinking of what we are going to say when we should be concentrating on what the other person has to say. James Humes, Speakers’s Treasury of Anecdotes About the Famous
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