How to Speak How to Listen

Mortimer J. Adler

Noted intellectual, academic and philosopher Mortimer J. Adler (1902-2001) taught at Columbia University and the University of Chicago. During the late 1930s, Percy Strauss, chairman of R.H. Macy and Company, offered Adler six times his professorial salary to work for Macy’s in New York. Adler stayed in academia, where he developed his theories on speaking and listening.

Adler did suggest ways to make Macy’s business conferences more efficient, thus reducing their frequency and saving executives’ time and trouble. More effective conferences meant more efficient operations and greater profits. Meetings are communication forums where people speak and listen to each other. Whatever your organization’s work and purpose are, if you improve your internal and external communications, you will improve your operations and your bottom line.

Speaking and Listening

Human communication involves language: writing, reading, speaking and listening. Reading instruction takes place during the elementary phase of education. Writing instruction continues in high school and college. When it comes to speaking – except for the occasional courses on public ...