A few weeks ago I took a few hours off family life to join the Balti Logistika team for a practical workshop in Tūja, on the Vidzeme seashore in Latvia.

The topic was “The Importance of Being Empathetic” (with a small wink to Oscar Wilde, of course).

Empathetic listening matters on several levels:
– it helps establish rapport and genuine human connection
– it gives real insight into the other person’s situation, needs, and perspective
– it allows us to calibrate our offer and message to what is actually needed
and it earns us the right to be listened to when the time comes.

As Chris Voss puts it: “Listening is the cheapest, yet most effective concession we can make.”

There’s nothing new or original about this. The art of dialogue has been discussed since writing began. From classical dialectics to Chris Voss’ tactical empathy or Neil Rackham’s SPIN model, one thing remains constant: giving our conversation partners real, undivided attention is a skill worth mastering.

Perhaps it’s time we took these very human intelligence skills seriously again.
Chances are AI will soon give us more time—and more opportunities—to practice them.

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