I like (almost) everything here. Except this one point:

"start with something small and innocuous. Crap openers like, “How are you?” or “What’s up?” are actually better than blindsiding someone..."

They may be better than blindsiding someone but you have GOT to find a better opener. Try for something that has to do with work.

Because when I walk into a 1:1 and my manager says "How are you?" I'm suspicious. Is that a trick question? Are we wasting time here? I know he doesn't really care ho wI am and we only have half an hour and I really need to get back to work and I hate 1:1s anyway and "How _am_ I"? Seriously???

So let's add a the corollary to the most basic rule of listening: If they don’t trust you, that "innocuous" opener to the conversation is going to turn them off Right Now.

And now that we've read this article, we can out-silence our managers.

Clock's ticking.