It can certainly improve relationships, although it's more effective there when "all parties to the relationship" are interested in being skillful in this depar

It can certainly improve relationships, although it's more effective there when "all parties to the relationship" are interested in being skillful in this department. How we listen/converse doesn't tell you anything at all about how we "treat" or "empathize" with people in "real life" situations. I listen/converse in a radically different manner when I'm paid to do so. Being skillful in these departments can supercharge sociopathic manipulative persuasion. I'm not sure how (or why) you are distinguishing between listening/conversing and "real life situations". We are always unavoidably influencing and being influenced by everything going on around us (and within us). You cannot help but do it, so you may as well do it skillfully. You might even choose to do it ethically. It affects everything that involves interactions with human beings, so for at least a while longer that's going to be "damned near everything".