Technology continues to shrink the world, further reducing opportunities for human interaction. This puts additional pressure and demand on listening skills. Applications and communication channels such as Twitter, email and instant messaging or chat sessions, encourage, by their very nature, short fast messages and a different language. The telephone has also taken on a different business function. Mobile devices mean conference calls and net-meetings allow a global workforce to be constantly mobile and effectively 'on' 24x7x365.
There are advantages from this constant evolution. Business can dramatically lower costs and shorten turn-around times. But with it come new challenges.
The possibility of always being 'on' goes against work-life balance, damanging individuals, their relationships and their productivity.
Cross-cultural structure of remote working and outsourcing requires a different listening style and skill set.
Active listening helps us respond to these challenges.
In order to actively listen we must stop; stop what we're doing and focus.