In the 1980s, management literature increasingly emphasized the role of listening. In “Search of Excellence”, Tom Peters notes that excellent companies are not only better on service, quality, reliability, and finding a niche. They are also better listeners. On a personal level, highly effective people seek first to understand and then to be understood. The problem is, to cite Steven Covey, that “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply”. In order to understand why a skill such as listening, although postulated as desirable in business practice, quickly reaches its limits in implementation, the following article will take a closer look at the fundamental lack of anchoring listening in our Western culture. It will become clear that listening can be taught and applied as a technique. If listening is also understood as an attitude and as a community affair, a cultural change is needed in organizations.