According to Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Habit Five is “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”. But even before Covey paraphrased it, the prayer of St. Francis, written in the 12th century, says “O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek... to be understood, as to understand...”. This is a powerful communications paradigm (or paradigm shift, for some people!), asking us to listen to the other person first, in order to gain understanding.

Habit Five has two divisions:
• Habit Five Research
• Habit Five Publishing