“Everybody always talks about the importance of speed, speed, speed, speed,” Fyke says. “But when everyone is moving too fast, slowing down becomes a competitive advantage. Quiet and reflection can be the new way of communicating.” Of course, it can be easier said than done to develop mindfulness in a competitive business world, a communication industry with pressure to be first and consumers who crave fresh content. Which is why Marquette offers insight into communication strategies that have stood the test of time. Some of the techniques Grow and Fyke use in the classroom are founded in sessions led by Dr. Susan Mountin, Jour ’71, Grad ’94, director of Manresa for Faculty in the Center for Teaching and Learning. Mountin’s role includes training faculty about the principles of Jesuit pedagogy, which places a high importance on contemplative practices. “There is so much noise in our society,” she says. “Helping people focus, go deeper and create an element of quiet in the classroom is important in every discipline.” To demonstrate the power of senses without speaking, Mountin adapted an exercise from St. Ignatius and had professors take five minutes to peel and eat a tangerine. She encouraged them to take in the colors and textures, tart smells, sweet tastes, and what they were feeling. “This is how we learn to pay attention,” she says. This lesson was so important to Fyke that he used the exercise to kick off his consulting class. This helped him demonstrate that it’s first necessary to be quiet and take in one’s surroundings to be an effective communicator. “A communication consultant needs to be a curious and enquiring observer,” he says. “When you spend five minutes peeling and eating a clementine, you learn to notice what’s around you.”
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This wasn’t a one-time practice for Fyke. For the rest of the course, he frequently held up a clementine during class to bring students back to the basics. At the end of the semester, several students remarked that the exercises helped them build a framework for learning to be a consultant. Fyke also thinks contemplative practices — he tries to engage in centering prayer for 20 minutes twice a day — help him be a more effective classroom instructor. He says he can be more comfortable with silence when asking questions and more focused on material when lecturing.
“When people are centered, they are much more resourceful. It really does help from decision-making to how you explain material.” “When people are centered, they are much more resourceful,” he says. “It really does help from decision-making to how you explain material.” When the business of the semester ended, Fyke used the time for further reflection at a three-day retreat at a Kentucky monastery. He brought a copy of Quiet and read about the power of silence. While preparing for his trip, he told Mountin of his intentions. She responded with some sage advice. “She reminded me to make sure you spend time actually being quiet, not just reading about being quiet,” he says.
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