Listen!

It's clearly a risk to use an article header that implies a request, or perhaps even a demand, for your attention. For many of you, the emotional reaction may be negative: why should you listen to anything I've got to say?

That is exactly my own reaction. I recognised this last week while listening to one of the co-commentators on TNT while covering a football match. The opinions expressed were habitually prefaced with 'Listen …' and I found myself involuntarily rolling my eyes, even if only metaphorically.

The exhortation can have the opposite of the desired effect, causing the words that follow to be diminished rather than emphasised.

In contrast, the image in this article is similar to a campaign that ran nationwide across one of Australia's biggest companies some years ago. The message was the reverse of a demand, it was an invitation for information to flow inwards rather than outwards.

We have adopted this predisposition at Photon Project Management. We seek input from our customers and staff about all aspects of our work, whether it's a suggestion about ways of improving installation designs or even changing our organisational structure to meet the needs of those who employ us on their major projects.

We listen, we reflect, and we act. We are proud of our work and of our relationships with our clients, large or small. But we don't like to shout about it.