Is Pharma Listening?

Listening for the hesitation

I admit I’m not a good listener.

If you’re like me, you listen to others just long enough to figure out you agree with what they’re saying. Then you stop listening because you know it all already.

If you don’t agree, you don’t listen to the argument. You just listen for the first hesitation so you can butt in and tell them how wrong they are.

Listening to what people are actually saying is a rare and difficult thing to do.

Maybe that’s why some people prefer to talk to answering machines.

Answering machines don’t butt in.

Do you think Pharma is a good listener?

Listening like a Dog

I recently came across a wonderful case of man’s-best-friend being used as a listener for children with reading difficulties.

Wearing a bright orange jacket bearing the words ‘STORY DOG’ this placid ridgeback delighted in being the focus of attention as the children read stories to it.

The Story Dog didn’t butt in either.

 

 

 

The Story Dog allowed the readers to read at their own pace, in their own way and was always grateful for the experience.

We could learn a lot from the Story Dog.

The last time I was listened to that attentively was by a three month old baby to whom I tried to sing a lullaby.

I am not a singer.

But I was able to hold this baby’s complete attention through sudden and involuntary changes of key, total loss of memory for the lyrics (and the tune) and with lots of La, La, La’s.

What I received from my listener was ‘attention’

It is a rare and difficult thing to achieve.

In the world of Social Media it’s easy to voice your opinion.

The barrier to entry is pretty low.

Getting attention is vastly more difficult because of listeners like you and me.

That’s why the listeners in social media world do so very well, and why those who listen poorly make so little progress.

The framework that The Thoughtware Group recommends for developing a Social Media Strategy always starts with the activity known as “Listening”.

The framework covers Engagement, Measurement, Capability Development, Governance, Prioritisation, Establishment of Objectives and Activities Review.

But it starts with Listening.

Sally Church gives an example of Social Media monitoring at it’s best on her blog.

It’s all about listening.

I’ve been practising hard.

It’s something most of us need to do.

(Tomorrow's Post: Who’s been Carrying Pharma?)