In a recent interview with Christianity Today, the writer Os Guinness tackled the pressing question of evil. Of particular interest to people who love people is his encouragement to listen before speaking:

"Suffering is uniquely individual, so there are no recipe answers. The first part of reaching out in love is to listen and try to discern where and why the person is hurting, and only then to bring the reassurance that the gospel brings to that particular hurt. We must never forget that listening is love, that comforting someone with an embrace without words is love, and that if we do not know why someone is suffering, to pretend that we do and say what God is doing in his or her life can be insensitive, cruel, and dead wrong—as Job’s comforters were. That said, evil can torture the mind just as it can torture the body, and it is wonderful to be able to bring specific, comforting truths of the gospel to bear on specific points of anguish and see them make a difference. For example, I have seen more people helped by coming to appreciate the outrage of Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus—and its significance for the notion that "the world should have been otherwise"—than by a hundred worthy expositions of the Fall."

• There’s an interesting note in the first chapter of James (1:19): "Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." How does that fit your understanding of confronting evil and suffering in the world at large and in your business (and relationships) in particular?
• We’ve all ended sales meetings once it became clear the salesman’s only interest was getting us to buy what he needed to sell — remember the old line attributed to Abraham Maslow? "When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Confronted with the real needs of real people, it is incumbent on those among us who claim to know something about God to do our best to answer questions people are actually asking.
• All of us who work with people — employees, partners, suppliers, contractors, customers…the whole lot — face the imminent likelihood of looking suffering in the face today. The problem-solvers among us default to a quick analysis and a definitive, declarative solution; done deal, move on. What would it cost to slow down long enough to listen before giving a one-size-fits-all answer to people in pain?
• And what can we infer from all this about designing remarkable products and services that serve people (as distinct from simply trying to get people to buy what we’re selling)?