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Anyone in the communications business, advertising or marketing, knows that the human touch is profoundly instrumental in getting the results you deserve.

Part of that personal interaction includes face to face conversations, whether one on one, one in a group, and the like.  [Many of us call it F2F.]

And embedded within those dialogues is a skill that, of late, the media has examined inside and out:  Listening.

Yeah, your mother told you:  ‘Listen when I talk.’  ‘God gave you two ears and one mouth.’

Still. 

Recent academic research has probed the nature of mindful hearing.   Eighty-five percent of what we know we learn through listening.  Yet we only listen at a 25 percent comprehension rate.  Compare those numbers with the demands of a typical business day:   45% listening, 30% talking, 16% reading, and 9% writing.

Despite all those stats, we’re not great at attending.  We interrupt.  We’d rather talk about ourselves.  We’re uncomfortable with emotions, so we avoid them.   We try to fix.  We’re distracted by you-know-whats.

As with all intangibles, listening well takes time to, well, learn.  It’s a matter of using the right tone, interpreting body language, and learning to actively hone in on another being.  Which is why corporate processes and programs like performance management , learning and development, even business strategy could stand a long and lengthy dose of ‘how to listen.’ 

No wonder Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust agrees:   “When you’re listening, you’re getting information.  You’re being given the gift of understanding where someone is … “

IT'S BOOM CITY, HERE

We’re fascinated by tech statistics – combined with, of course, very human stories.

The latest?  For the past year or so, a number of reputable firms, through various research studies, announced that the boomer generation is a rather significant middle-of-the-road adopter of technology.  From Blackberries to Internet surfing, we boomers account for 40 percent of the spend (though we’re 25 percent of the population).

What’s more, we text, use search engines, check online ratings, answer email, and, in general, practice all of the e-activities commonly associated with younger generations, whether you call them Xs or millennials or Ys.  And speaking for ourselves, we’ve developed quite a CrackBerry (substitute:  iPhone) habit, almost obsessively looking at our smartphones to determine the latest news  – and who needs us.

There it is:  The humanity of technology.  There’s an overwhelming desire to not only be informed but also to be included in work and life goings-on, regardless of age or career situation.  Even our moms, well into their 70s, 80s, and 90s, educated themselves – or via the local public library – on what this computer stuff was all about.  [They then bragged to their friends that they’d met the Internet – and it was theirs. It was a completely different story when they physically encountered screen and mouse.  That’s another story for another day.] 

That need for inclusion, a Maslov-ian desire, underlies our technology use.  There’s no way, for a group so dedicated to changing America, that boomers would not master YouTube, social networking, and the latest gadgets.  At the same time, that discipline is softened by a commitment to ourselves and the world.  It’s our DNA.  And it’s a dominant gene, one for marketers, sales people, communicators to remember.  Everywhere.  Every time.

NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR …

Sad news. 

The United States Postal Service, still way far from profitability, plans to close more than 3,600 branches soon, with thousands of other facilities and stations under review.  Older consumers in rural communities are up in arms about the loss of this essential public service.  Death notices have been posted – and rallies, initiated to save the local gathering places.

What happened?  Together with the recession, the digitization of America did in Ben Franklin’s institution.    As did the high cost of employee benefits and, most probably, bureaucratic inefficiencies.

Yet name us one person who doesn’t like to receive snail mail at home and at the office. Who doesn’t eagerly grab the latest copies of Esquire and People, of Oprah and, yes, The Economist.   And who doesn’t thrill to get the occasional hand-written letter, the overseas postcard, and, of course, birthday and holiday greetings.

In our view, online “everything” isn’t the panacea.    Some of the most effective internal and external communications are delivered by the office mail supervisor and the friendly post-person.  That effectiveness can be measured through the item’s long shelf life, helping drive retention of messages. It can also be seen in colorful pictures that seduce us into dreams and planning, and say “touch me.”  Even packages with deliberate calls to action – even if it’s only “order me” – usually delight the recipient. 

And then there’s the deliverer.  In study after study, consumers say that it’s their postal service person who goes above and beyond the call of duty.  They welcome the human touch, the open welcome provided by the mail carrier, and the opportunity to talk.

Our USPS representative at home is moving on to another, easier route.  He thanked us for our magazine subscriptions, for regularly using the post office, and for checking in with him every day.   That combination of humanity and “touch-able” mail needs to be savored, and saved, inside and out.