When People Listen…

new ideas take shape

Listening - taking in new, foreign, and interesting ideas - is how we grow and adopt new ways of living, believing, and acting in our world.

They Understand issues and Make better solutions

Listening helps us see problems from other peoples’ perspectives and allows us to hear new ways of tackling them we could never imagine alone.

They Learn More Deeply

When people are actively working to listen, more new content will stay with them for longer.

Their Brains synchronize and Everyone Learns

Teachers who have deeply engaged audiences - and who are themselves deeply engaged with their students - create environments of omnidirectional learning.

They can better resolve conflicts

Simply showing others that you are truly listening - that you care about their situation and life experience - can help decrease tension and build empathy.

4 Tips To Listen Well

Show You’re Paying Attention

Give the speaker your undivided attention, and acknowledge the message through your body language, affirmations, or other cues.

Provide Feedback and Probe for Understanding

Offer meaningful interactions at appropriate moments in the conversation. Ask inquisitive questions to drive the conversation deeper.

Defer Judgment

Keep an open mind as you listen and try to assume best intentions. Don’t immediately attribute to malice what could be a simple mistake or misunderstanding.

Respond Appropriately

Stay “on topic” - make sure that when you share from your own experiences that they truly echo off of the ideas shared by others in the conversation.

A Pyramid of Listening

Listening can be intense or cursory, simple or complex. These four modes of listening increase in intensity and emotional investment:

Listening to enjoy

This is the listening you might do to a story, music, or simple information. It is chiefly aimed at simply understanding and appreciating the content.

Critical listening

This listening involves hearing what someone says, identifying key points and/or arguments, and solidifying your opinion. This complex form of listening is often used in debate or adversarial settings.

Relational Listening

This listening helps us interact with other people. This listening requires empathy and an active heart to accompany the ears. It is the listening we use when helping friends with problems or speaking deeply with others.

Discriminative listening

This extremely active listening looks past just the words you hear to detect the underlying message embedded within. Observing body language, tone changes, diction, cadence, and volume, you can determine what someone really thinks and feels.

All images CC licensed from Noun Project: “Ear” by Robert A. Di Ieso, “listener” by Eucalyp, “Pyramid” by Alexander Blagochevsky