Conversations in Management: Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard

"A good listener is usually thinking of something else." -Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard

Some people have a knack for capturing truth in just a few words—“Kin” Hubbard was one of those people. Born in 1868, Hubbard was slow to discover his life’s calling. By chance, he landed a job with the Indianapolis News doing humorous sketches in 1891. Though funny, the drawings were crude and lacked sophistication. When a new editor expressed a desire for a real artist, Hubbard quit and spent the next several years both wandering the south and perfecting his craft. Invited back to the News in 1901, Hubbard earned a reputation as a first rate political caricaturist. He then began working on a new type of cartoon and introduced Abe Martin to readers of the News just before Christmas in 1904. The format was simple—a single panel cartoon with two unrelated lines of text. Abe was a rustic country philosopher who in lieu of working spent all his time conjuring clever observations on the human condition. The daily cartoon was an immediate hit and in time Abe Martin, a weekly essay called Short Furrows and one line wisdoms were syndicated nation-wide. When Hubbard died in 1930, Will Rogers, speaking for all humorists, said, “No man in our generation was within a mile of him…just think—only two lines a day, yet he expressed more original philosophy in ‘em that in all the rest of the paper combined.”

The original philosophy contained in Hubbard’s observation about listening is a case in point. As Hubbard noted, when people appear to be listening, they’re often rehearsing what they want to say next. This dynamic is particularly active in fast moving brainstorming and problem solving discussions. Since not everyone can talk at once (except on cable news programs) someone who has an idea, will hold on to it in their mind for fear they’ll forget it. If they can’t speak immediately, they tend to mull their idea over and improve upon it while others are doing the talking. Naturally, if you’re busy thinking about what you want to say, you aren’t hearing what somebody else is actually saying. If you don’t know what’s been said, you’re going to have a hard time responding to or building upon those ideas.

Unfortunately, when folks are rehearsing, they aren’t really aware of it. That’s why in meetings someone will blurt out a comment that has nothing to do with the current topic, but with one that was discussed fifteen minutes earlier. Or some one will later swear that a subject was never broached when the rest of the team knows that unlike the proverbial dead horse, the subject was, in fact, beaten well after death.

This isn’t an easy problem to fix because most adults have learned to act like they’re deeply engaged in a discussion when they patently aren’t. Leaders have two techniques that can make a difference. First, make sure everyone comes to the meeting prepared. If people have thought through the subject in advance, they are less likely to spend discussion time rehearsing. Secondly, check in with everyone as the discussion progresses. Don’t move on until you’ve heard from everybody. And remember too, that, “the only way to entertain some folks is to listen to them.”