A responsible listener is a response-able listener: I once knew a man who had a most unusual recruitment technique that he used to sift out the very best salespeople for his organisation. This is how he would work it. In a hotel conference room, with maybe 100 prospective candidates applying for a sales job, the interviewer stands in front of his audience and explains that for the next five minutes he will inform them about the company’s history and the company’s products. He asks them to please pay special attention and then he commences. (Two or three minutes into the introduction, this set-up occurs). A man enters the room, walks towards the front and stops by an empty table in the corner opposite the interviewer. Without looking at the audience and without saying a word, the stranger begins putting paper plates on the table. (The interviewer completely ignores the man, he doesn’t even glance at him or acknowledge that he is there – he just continues talking as if nothing had happened.) The stranger meanwhile, takes a can of shaving cream, shakes it vigorously and then starts to fill the plates with cream. (The audience become bewildered and somewhat amused). Once all the plates are brimming over, the stranger leaves the room, again without saying a word. The interviewer continues for another 30 seconds or so, then he instructs the candidates to write down answers to the simple questions he is about to ask, on the subject he has just explained. The vast majority of the audience are unable to do this, as they had stopped listening to the interviewer. Instead they were distracted by the stranger and were paying more attention to him. However, there are always a small few, who are able to answer the simple questions and thus prove that they were not distracted and were in fact listening. These ‘listeners’ are the ones he employs: His theory being, the best listeners always prove to be the best salespeople.

R. Ian Seymour