I met with one of my colleagues yesterday to discuss what sort of data might be useful to faculty members. Yeah, I know, everyone who reads this will immediately think, “Oh, wow! That is so cool. I wish I could sit and talk about data for a few hours with someone. That would be nearly as much fun as getting my gums scraped.” After twenty or thirty minutes, ( it may have seemed more like an hour or two to the teacher), one of my questions brought up something else.

The something else wasn’t directly related to either of our job descriptions; it had to do with a very stressful situation that one of the colleague’s family members is currently facing. We only talked about that for a couple of minutes but it was an important couple of minutes.

Now, I would never suggest that the water cooler become the focal point for interpersonal counseling; we are, coincidentally, hired to perform fairly specific jobs in most employment situations. But it is often the other things, the things involving home, health and family, that affect the performance and productivity of our co-workers. When we are alert to and genuinely concerned about those other things, we may find ourselves inadvertently contributing to actual improvement in both personal and professional performance.

Any time that we do things that make people feel noticed, valued and appreciated, we contribute to making our place a better place to work. Listening, even or especially without offering solutions, is one of those things.

People will rarely walk up to us and just start talking about what’s really on their heart. We may have to pause long enough to notice something other than our own fixations. If we do, we will find that there is usually some hint or clue. Today just might be a really important day for you to wrestle your attention away from the usual data of your life and focus on someone else’s.

H. Arnett
9/26/12