Our media over recent days has been engulfed by the News of the World phone hacking story.
The twists and turns of this unfolding saga has dominated headlines and taken our emotions with it.
I've been checking the story out at The Guardian, BBC, and Sky News, watching it play out with its cast of politicians, police, journalists, celebrities and ordinary people at their most vulnerable.
This story plays with our emotions; abhorrence at the thought of someone listening to and then deleting the messages left on Milly Dowler's phone. Anger that someone could listen in on the emotional outpourings of bereaved relatives of our servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. There are feelings of curiosity, disbelief and astonishment too.
I'm struck how listening; that most healing of our communication skills has, in this story, been used against people, creating victims, causing hurt and pain, turning a tool of compassion into a violation, an intrusion.
But listening needs a better press. Well honed listening skills make a difference. Most people need a good listening to, especially during periods of personal and professional change. If you are managing a team in the NHS at the moment you will know just how important it is to listen to people as they grapple with huge and rapid change. Skills that we expect our clinicians to have at the highest level.
And what about selling? The best sales people do the most listening, don't they? Picking up buying clues, overcoming objections, understanding the needs of their customer.
Years ago I attended a workshop run by Patsy Rodenburg, Director of Voice at the Guildhall of Music and Drama. Like all great teachers, she held the audience spellbound throughout the session, and I remember how she described listening, that is listening with intention, as placing the speaker in a state of grace.
That's the sort of press listening needs. Put someone in a state of grace today! Give them a good listening to.
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