The world is abuzz with noise. From twitters to tweets, from blasts to blogs, the internet has given all of us a voice, whether we deserve it or not (present company included). What we do with this noise can be crucial to our marketing efforts. What parts of the noise do we ignore? What needs to be heard?

Webster's New World Dictionary defines the verb "listen" as: To make a conscious effort to hear. "Conscious effort" implies an active role in absorbing and analyzing information.

Corporate America has awakened to the need for well-trained ears. Please take a look at an article published this week in Advertising Age (http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=145618). In it, you will see that the title of Chief Listening Officer has been codified by several major corporations.

I would like to spend some time talking about the important role that listening plays in the creative process at Page Design. Some years ago, after making a creative presentation to a major health care provider, the CEO of that organization pulled me aside and said, "Thank you. You really listened to us." I put that compliment on a par with any design award Page Design has ever won.

The culture of listening has deep roots at Page Design. From my perspective, it dates back to 1972 during my brief stint as an architecture student at UC Berkeley. I had a class from an instructor named Don Koberg, who assigned a book he had co-authored titled "The Universal Traveler: a Soft-Systems Guide to Creativity, Problem-Solving & the Process of Reaching Goals." A year later, I was at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, taking a class from the book's other co-author, Jim Bagnall. This book was following me around. It was trying to tell me something.

And, tell me something it did. The book is the closest thing I have ever experienced to an instruction manual for the creative process. Its central message is a seven-step process for creative problem solving. The second step of the process is one called "analysis". This step is defined as gathering, organizing and synthesizing pertinent information. A lot of listening is involved in this step.

Interestingly, and significantly, the step called "Ideation" is the fourth step in the process. I find this especially worthy of note because, for years, we have approached potential new clients with pencils in hand, open notebooks and lots of questions about their needs. Often we find we did not get the job because: "The other guys came in bursting with ideas." I ask myself: "How did they get those ideas without even knowing what the problem was?" On more than one occasion, those same clients have come back to us six months later saying: "Those guys didn't really understand us."

I would urge you all to get a copy of "The Universal Traveler". It is still in print and has quite a following. The process can be used for creativity, or any problem solving you need to do in life. Pay particular attention to the importance of listening.

And, if you are in the market for creativity, please give us a call. We would love to listen to you.