The Listenary

Information is power.

Remember the kid in grade school who taunted, “If you do that, I’m gonna tell.” Whether or not whom he could tell mattered to you, that statement was a claim to power over you based on the fact that he knew something about you. He had information and that was his claim to power.

If information is power, then I know several people including myself whose paradigm of power in today’s society is upside down. I always thought the one doing the talking was the one in control. I saw the lectern as the symbol of power in a nation of free press. I saw the sales person with a good pitch as a threat to my pocketbook. I knew the professors often treated the vocal student as the leader, the person of significance. Society often assigns a higher rank to the speaker than to the listener.

Follow with me the path of information and therefore the path of power. As the lecturer or sales person transfers information to me, she transfers power. Admittedly, as long as she speaks she holds control of how much information or power she releases, but whenever her mouth is open she is transferring power.

For instance the lecturer gives me information by which I may go out and make good decisions or come back an heckle him. The talking sales person gives me information about her in the form of what she thinks might be my motives for buying; if she doesn’t check them out with me and I give her no information in return, I will be able to sit through her pitch unmoved because she gave me power and I gave her none. The vocal student gives me information and so does the professor in dealing with him, so I may have an extra right answer for the exam or a piece of leverage with the student’s girlfriend.

I propose that listening is the lost link to power and influence.