Q 3014223150.     Most of us are not very good listeners. We tend to believe that at meetings we will be judged by the amount we contribute with regard to the sheer volume of words rather that by how much we absorb other people's ideas. When we are listening, or think we are, we find it almost impossible to stop talking to ourselves. We assume that what the other person is saying is dreary and pointless. We don't open our mouth, of course, because that is just plain bad manners; but we do tend to use our listening to work out and rehearse what we hope to say. Again and again at meetings, you will hear people hotly denouncing views that have never been put forward or defending to the last breath those that have never been attacked. We live in a competitive world and most of us are concerned with putting our own ideas across or beating the other in an argument about their ideas.
"...that is just plain bad manners." This refers to