The Goal Isn’t Efficiency. It’s This…

In today’s world, I believe being a good listener is a superpower.

However, listening is harder or maybe even impossible when communications is asynchronous or one-way (like an email, voice message or written letter).

What I’ve been doing to become better in these channels is something I learned reading American Kingpin, the story about the creator of the Silk Road and the hunt to catch him.

One of the team members who helped break the case is an IRS agent named Gary Alford. There is one paragraph describing him that spoke to me as it relates to listing and communication.

Gary’s habit is to read everything three times. Every email. Every book. Every article. Every grocery list.

This patient and diligent process enables Gary to pick up on things that others miss.

I’ve been challenging myself to adopt this practice. It’s hard because for so long I’ve been moving from one thing to another as quickly and efficiently as possible.

However, efficiency is not the goal. Effectiveness is.
But man does effectiveness take a lot of patience.

Originally published at David Horne.

And if you liked this, you’d probably like my bi-weekly publication: Notes from the Field.