Pat Wagner on Listening:
A Network Member Reports from the Joint Meeting

By Laura Brown, M.L.S.
Associate Director
Jesse Medical Library & Information Center
Loma Linda University Medical Center

One of the highlights of the Joint Meeting of Medical Library Groups in Sacramento in January was Pat Wagner's keynote address titled "Listening as a Diagnostic Tool for Medical Librarians". I found her presentation exceptionally helpful and want to share my notes with colleagues who were not able to attend the meeting.

Pat began her talk with a story about the German religious scholar Martin Buber (1878-1965). During World War I, a student came to Buber with an important question. Buber was a brilliant man, and he talked for hours while the young man listened attentively. A few months later the young man was killed in the war. The student's friends asked Buber how he answered the young man's question, "Is it moral to be in the war?" But Buber did not remember that the student had asked the question. Then the realization hit! Buber was horrified; he had been so busy being the brilliant Martin Buber that he hadn't stopped to listen to the question that was troubling the young student in the first place. Now it was too late.

So often those of us who are gifted talkers do not spend enough time listening, except to hear that slight pause that will allow us to make our next wise comment. Pat's presentation provided some useful tools to help build listening skills.

Tips:

1. Create a room in your mind where the only other thing present in the room is the person you are listening to. Let them fill the room.
2. Act and provide feedback. If the answer is no, tell them why. Don't keep secrets you don't need to keep.
3. Find ways to say yes, or at least leave the door open (not "we can't do it", but "we will have to investigate and see if it fits in with the strategic plan").
4. Remember the goal is not to prove you are the smartest person in the room. The goal is to get things right. Others often have valid contributions to make to that goal; use every brain cell in the room.
5. The mantra: Tell me more. --- Tell me more. --- Tell me more.
6. On committees or in meetings when it is your time to talk, look at the rest of the committee members. If there are some that have been quiet, solicit their input instead of giving yours.

Exercise:

Try sitting in silence with another person and just listen. If you were allowed to ask questions, you would be leading the conversation. Pretend the other person is a flame, and if you speak, you will blow it out. In her regular classes, Pat had people do this for 15 minutes - very hard for those of us who are used to monopolizing the conversation. This exercise allows the talker full control over the conversation.

Suggested Readings:

1. I and Thou by Martin Buber
2. Philosophy and the Real World: An Introduction to Karl Popper by Bryan Magee

Pat Wagner also taught a CE course, "Marketing As If Your Library Depended On It", which got rave reviews. It will be repeated at MLA this May.

[Editor's Note: Pat Wagner has worked with Pattern Research and its predecessor the Office for Open Network since 1977 as a consultant, researcher, writer and trainer. She frequently leads workshops and teaches courses in a variety of library settings.]

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