"Hey, what's up?" "Good!"

The “Listening is Powerful Medicine” article really put true listening into perspective. Doctors really only ever ask about your well-being and any symptoms or possible reasons you have for being ill. I think that this article really shows that we must set aside the job and truly listen to what people are trying to say to us. We need to care about others, and maybe that's medically relevant. Listening in medicine, or even in retail like my current job, could promote many possibilities and change the future of organizations.

The article made me think of my job in retail. I will always greet the customer with a "How are you today?" but to be honest, it seems as though it is just a customer/employee courtesy that I ask them that question. I honestly don't care about the answer, it doesn't matter to me how they are, and I can't really do anything with that information unless it allows me to cross sell or something of the sort.  We had a speaker come in and talk with us associates about getting rid of this greeting and implement a new greeting that will get straight to the point.  Nine times out of ten when I lead off with the new greeting, ‘What brings you into Office Depot?’ the customer usually replies with ‘Good!’, then becomes confused as to why I did not ask about his day or how he is doing.  I know for a fact that more and more stores, not just Office Depot, are implementing these types of programs and it causes me to wonder as to when we will implement robotic shopping assistants. 
            As far as medicine is concerned, the doctor only used four out of the six steps of listening.  She sensed or received the message, was mindful of the message, organized the message, and interpreted and evaluated the message but did not get so far as to respond to the message or remember the message.  It wasn't until she was told by a patient that she needed to listen until she performed all six steps to listening.

I think that active listening is good for patient health because, as aforementioned, it makes the speaker feel more value.  People who have pets tend to be in better medical condition than those who don’t. Is it because they have someone to talk to who will actually listen to them?  If people listen to the speaker, then maybe the speaker will become more self-confident, or maybe they will develop a psychological cure for their disease.  What I mean by psychological cure is not necessarily a cure that will rid the body of the disease but rather act as if it were a placebo and make the body think that it was healthier.  Sometimes just fooling the body into thinking it was healthier can make the healing process progress more rapidly.  I think that the listening process should be implemented everywhere because it will make for a happier and healthier world.