Sunday, April 29, 2007

Listening

I met with Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google for an interview to be broadcast in the "The Professionals" program in NHK during his visit to Tokyo.

Eric said that in Google, information regarding business and technology is made as open as possible, as freedom of information is one of the necessary premises of a creative company. Eric stressed the importance of listening, as a collection of people is bound to be cleverer than an individual, how gifted and experienced that particular person might be.

In a meeting, after expressing his own opinion, Eric waits for somebody else to oppose him, and then listen to the following discussions among the participants. Eric finds that listening is an essential part of creative management. Without listening, one cannot learn, especially in this era of distributed intelligence of the swarm.

Needless to say, the final decision is his, but in order to make an educated choice, a period of listening must precede the moment of truth.

2 comments:

SHIRO said...

Fortunes, gifts, present according imformations. I'm not a manager of company, but would like to listen to the words which said by my precious friends, my parents, and my partner.

Anonymous said...

Recently, I came across a passage from the Bible while I was reading a book: He who answers before listening -- that is his folly and his shame.