conversation is an engine

Extreme listening adds intent to our ordinary encounters: purposeful and expectant waiting, watching and hearing for life-altering content. But is that too big a burden for everyday conversation? Perhaps conversation was made both for casual and in-depth need: flexing the moment interest turns hot for the true seeker? Extreme listening helps us sort our multitude of messages with keen observation and pointed hunger. We sort for what we need based on a clarifying sense of who we are and where we’re going.

Mortimer Adler and Alain de Botton exhibit habits of extreme listening, as is clear from the results of their work. Jesus the Christ spent considerable time in conversation with the God of the Universe, as much more than a disinterested conversation partner—He was intent on hearing because of so much that was required of Him.

Today pockets of extreme listening are motivated by strategic intent to serve communities, clients or shareholders, to grow customers, to capture potential buyers right at their point of decision. The chapter suggests listening-rhetoric as the engine behind our communication and also points out attitudes that support extreme listening.

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