The Listening Depot

On This American Life this week (episode #370), Ira Glass covered a researcher who was examining the effects that one disruptive person could have on a small group. In almost every scenario examined, one bad apple really could spoil the whole bunch; groups tended to achieve at the level of the least motivated, most disruptive person. In this experiment, the bad apple was an actor planted who expertly feigned mean, slothful, and depressive behavior.

The actor was very successful, ruining the dynamics of nearly every group he was in. He was foiled only once, by a group led by a diplomat’s son. This guy led by listening. When a disruption arose which would have derailed any other group he would defuse it by actively listening to everyone in the group, soliciting everyone’s opinion, making sure everybody was heard, thereby getting the group back on track.

Which led Ira to make this observation: “If that is true, if listening is all that it takes to overcome bad behavior, if listening is more powerful than meanness, sloth or depression, it’s like a trick from a children’s story, a golden-rule kind of lesson that seems way too after-school-special to possibly be true.  By listening to each other, trying to understand each other, we can get to the point where nobody can ruin things for everyone else.“