After “no,” “listen” is one of the first words we learn. As adults, it often seems that too many people skipped this segment of their toddler conversation workshops.

In western culture we are battered by requests to join conversations with brands, online communities and tenuously linked colleagues. Even with the growing number of message delivery channels, too often business exchanges suffer from a failure to communicate with any stakeholders. Savvy marketers know that dialogues are not one way and that good exchanges require listening.

If sitting is the new smoking, listening may be the endangered species of conversation. The importance of listening has long been recognized.

“To listen closely and reply well is the highest perfection we are able to attain in the art of conversation.”-- Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613- 1680) noted French author of maxims and memoirs.

These set of observations started when ED+C’s editor Derrick Teal shared his amazement at receiving unsolicited product samples. Most green editors have no need of these — and worse, no means to responsibly or conveniently recycle. Anyone listening or taking time for a smidgen of thought would know that an editor has little use for a single building widget.

We live in a world of electronic beeps and tweets. As communicators we sometimes need reminders to appreciate and heed our audience to create better conversations. Two ears for listening and one mouth for talking remains a worthy principle of interaction whether electronic or face-to-face.

As a bonus, there actually is a survey complete with mid-century clip art. If you only want to score your listening skills, go directly to page 5. The first four pages quickly cover the standard obstacles.