I Love The Sound I Make When I Shut Up

I have never met anyone who learned anything by talking. Unfortunately, I have met a very large number of people who cannot stop talking. An amazing number of these people talk about themselves most of all: their past accomplishments, how they already know just what your issue is, and how great you should think they are. In fact, they are so eager to tell you something, most of the time they never let you finish a thought. These folks are so keenly interested in telling people what they know (or just hearing themselves talk) they miss important information being imparted.

What makes them think the person they are interrupting expects them to already know what they are going to say? What makes them think that interrupting that person speaking does anything other than irritate them?

You might have read my thoughts on asking, “Why?”, until you squeeze every ounce of information out of a subject matter expert (SME). Well, the key to really learning about any subject is to listen. Close your mouth, open your ears, and let the SME finish his thought. For all you know, that last part of the answer that you were about to cut off was the key piece of information you needed to really make a difference.

Of course there are exceptions...If you are the customer and the speaker is some annoying sales guy that is so sure you want to hear his wisdom about your problem that he has forgotten to listen to your problem, you should go ahead and interrupt him - and probably show him the door.

However, in most situations I am probably the annoying guy. So, I try very hard to shut up. Let the other person finish telling me about his problem. I always learn something and my response is topical and appropriate.

I am convinced that there are no short cuts in learning. Asking a question, interrupting the answer to ask another question, interrupting again to ask another question never shortens the conversation or the learning curve. It always takes just as long (or longer) because it delivers choppy information with no context.

So before you interrupt the answer to a question you asked, first ask yourself if the best sound you can make is the sound of silence.