Preparing for listening

Preparing for listening

This involves the followings:

(i) Determining your purpose
Listening is three types – content listening, critical listening, and active/empathetic listening. Listening to a lecture in a classroom is content listening; listening to a political debate on TV is critical listening and listening to a speaker in the office or small groups, is active/empathetic listening.
Each one of these requires different skills and degree of attentiveness as good listeners. At any rate, in order to become good listeners, individuals must understand why they are listening!

(ii) Getting ready to listen
Good listening implies a readiness to listen. Individuals have to prepare themselves for listening physically, mentally and emotionally. It means shutting out all distracting sounds and signals, trying to sit nearest to the speaker so that speaker can be seen and heard clearly. Mental preparations give a purpose to listening, leading to emotional involvement in listening.

(iii) Accepting your share of responsibility
Listeners should share with the speaker the responsibility of communicating rather than behave as if they are daring him to make the audience take interest in the subject. In fact, the quality of listening improves the quality of speakers‟ delivery! Everyone has an innate desire to be listened to. Quality of listening by the audience influences not only the quality of delivery but also the length of speech.

IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS

IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS

Human ears are, in the modern world, continually bombarded with sounds. People hear these sounds but do not listen to all of them. They should be thankful to God that they cannot because if they do, they shall go mad! As a self-defense mechanism, listeners block off many sounds from their consciousness by tuning them out.

Blocking off sounds is a good device as it helps in concentrating on what people want to hear. Unfortunately, they also run the risk of blocking off what they should be listening. They develop such habits so that many times, they block off even when they are in the company of their best friends.
Fortunately, such habits can be unlearnt and replaced with good listening habits. Being aware of this deficiency is giving the process of unlearning a good start! 

Socio-cultural barriers

Socio-cultural barriers

A few important ones are:

(i) Cultural background is different
Different cultural background leading to different pronunciations and accents for speaking the same words can spoil the delivery of a message. It the recent cricket match series in Australia between the host country and Indian team, there was a piquant situation because „bastard‟ is an accepted form of communication in Australia and „monkey‟ is an accepted admonition in any heated personal discussion in India.

(ii) Personal space and public space
Some cultures permit greater personal space than others. If the same is not available even in a not-so-formal interaction, it may upset some. Even the way of addressing in different regions of the same country can create misunderstanding.

(iii) Sense of time
Experience confirms that a western visitor from the USA or Europe would like to get straight into business without significant preliminaries beyond wishing one another and getting introduced. However, a typical Asian may start with preliminaries as a warm-up and may even prefer to have a cup of tea before coming to the formal part of the agenda. It is said that Japanese like to have a game of golf before sitting for any serious meeting!

Linguistic barriers

Linguistic barriers

Also called semantic barriers, these can block ones‟ ability to listen. These are:

(i) Use of difficult words and jargons
Some speakers have an affected style of talking – they use difficult words and slang to impress rather than convey the message. Speakers must gift parcel their speech to the level of understanding of the listeners.

(ii) Speakers‟ manners and style
Much of the time, speakers‟ manners, appearance and body language are important. Politicians can, sometimes, stoop low and talk narrow, petty issues for winning local sympathy and perhaps votes but a rational listener may block his speech as hallow and worthless. He may block the message completely.

(iii) Use of words with double meaning and mispronounced words
Some speakers have a poor way of pronouncing with a heavy bias of the regional spoken language. This may come in the way of catching the words and phrases correctly.

(iv) The lag time in speech
Some speakers speak very slowly. They take so much time to complete a sentence that listeners find it very difficult to slow down their thought process. They get too much of spare time when their mind flies away to other issues. Keeping focus is a lot more difficult in such cases.

(v) Different frame of mind
If the speaker‟s background and area of specialization is widely different, it may come in the way of understanding the terms and phrases used in the speech. The same words may have a different meaning in listeners‟ framework; consequently, there may be a gap in the understanding the message received.

Physiological distractions & barriers

Physiological distractions & barriers

These may be:
(i) Hearing impairment – It is the case with many old persons
(ii) Hunger – It may make one inattentive
(iii) Tiredness/exhaustion from overwork – It may come in the way of listening
(iv) Pain or injury – It may divert ones‟ attention

 Barriers

These are:
(i) Beliefs
Audiences‟ strong views on religion, politics, business area or even sex may come in the way of their paying attention to the speaker. Individuals‟ views impact their attitude and behavior.
(ii) Fear
If the subject being talked about is sensitive in nature as it pertains to audiences‟ fears, they may cut it off from their hearing.
(iii) Anger
If a remark by the speaker has made the audience angry and upset, it will reduce their ability to absorb the message or they may miss it altogether.
(iv) Anxiety
State of health of a near or dear one may make one anxious about it while at work and the person may miss some parts of the conversation.
(v) Sad memories
While listening to a speech, if someone refers to an incident that has a lot of memories treasured by listeners, it may send them into a reflective mood and they may miss some parts of the conversation.

BARRIERS TO GOOD LISTENING

BARRIERS TO GOOD LISTENING

Listening is rather very difficult. It is taken for granted by parents, schools, colleges and management institutes. Although the receivers are personally present throughout, most of them are poor listeners. What are the inherent problems in the process of listening and how to overcome these barriers? A few common barriers have been listed below:

(1) Environmental barriers

(i) Physical distractions
Environmental disturbances come in the way:
 Noisy surroundings
 Loud music
 The noise of machines, office equipment etc
 The noise of road traffic including horns of vehicles

(ii) Loud talking
In some cultures, people talk rather loudly. Talking loudly by persons nearby can distract a person from hearing others.

(iii) Visual distractions
A hoarding or poster on the wall may distract attention and may come in the way of catching an important point of the conversation. Similarly, speakers‟ clothes, accessories, make-up like eyeshadows etc may distract listeners‟ attention.

TYPES OF LISTENING

TYPES OF LISTENING

Listening can be varied depending upon:

 Purpose
 Interaction
 Feedback

It can be classified into the following three distinct types:

(1) Content listening
The purpose of content listening is to retain the information for future use or for further transmission rather faithfully. Here, we try to identify the key points and concentrate on the structure of the message. Receivers take a preview – an overall view of the entire message. It is not important whether they agree or not with the contents. They try to assimilate the contents of the message as received. For example, a department of the government giving the details of the procedure would expect the public to follow in dealing with them!

(2) Critical listening
The message received undergoes an evaluation at several levels to understand:
 Logic of argument
 Strength of evidence
 Validity of conclusions
 Implications of the message for individuals
 Implications of the message for the organization
 Speakers‟ intention and motive
 The omission of any relevant point etc
Evaluating and absorbing information simultaneously is rather difficult. Listeners‟ should reserve their judgment right up to the end. Effort should be made to uncover speakers‟ viewpoint.

(3) Active / empathetic listening
The purpose here is to understand the speakers‟ feelings, needs and wants. Listeners have to understand speakers‟ viewpoint irrespective of whether they share those perceptions or not. By listening actively, receivers‟ let speakers vent their emotions. Listeners should resist the temptation of advising them and they should let the persons do the talking with cues and clues of encouragement.

Typical features of active and empathetic listening are:

 Make eye contact
 Exhibit affirmative head nods and appropriate facial expressions
 Avoid distracting actions and gestures
 Ask questions
 Paraphrasing what is said
 Avoid interrupting the speaker
 Do not over-talk
 Make a smooth transition from the role of a speaker to that of a listener

PROCESS OF LISTENING

PROCESS OF LISTENING

It entails following five steps:

(1) Sensing
It is physical hearing and assimilating through all the five senses – hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching. It should also include taking down notes. However, reception of message can get blocked because of:
 Interfering noises and distractions
 Inattention by audience
 Impaired hearing etc
Listeners have to work hard to avoid distraction and focus on the message.

(2) Interpreting
It is decoding in our mind and absorbing the message being delivered. As people listen, they assign meanings to words through their own mental filters comprising of their:
 Beliefs
 Assumptions
 Values
 Ideas
 Expectations
 Roles
 Needs
 Personal history
This role of the persons listening to a speech is very vital. They should pay attention to non-verbal cues because body language of gestures, sounds, postures and expressions do not tell lies. If they have learnt the art and science of understanding speeches well, it increases accuracy of their listening.

(3) Evaluating
It is forming opinion about the message heard. If the subject matter is complex or it is a topic that has emotional overtones, effort is required to:
 Sort out the remarks made by the speaker
 Separate facts from opinions
 Evaluate quality of evidence
As a rule, listeners dismiss ideas from an unattractive and abrasive speaker. Also, they easily embrace ideas of „charismatic‟ speakers.

(4) Remembering
It is storing message after receiving in the memory for future use. Good speakers facilitate storage by doing the followings:
 Comparing the message with the previous similar messages
 Highlighting the components of transition in the new message
 Summarizing and paraphrasing the message

(5) Responding
It is reacting to the content of the message in some fashion. When audience is large, it may take the form of:
 Silence
 Applause
 Laughter etc

GROUP DECISION MAKING

GROUP DECISION MAKING

Group decision-making passes through the following four stages:

 Orientation phase (Forming)
 Conflict phase (Storming)
 Emergence phase (Norming)
 Reinforcement phase (Performing)


(1) Orientation phase (Forming)
Group members socialize with other members, establish their roles and agree on the reasons/justifications for the meeting.

(2) Conflict phase (Storming)
Members begin to discuss the problems and issues involved. If groups are chosen carefully to represent different interests, expertise, and viewpoints, disagreements are natural and healthy. At the end of this phase, a considerable agreement is reached regarding the possible solution.

(3) Emergence phase (Performing)
Members who advocated different solutions put aside their objections either because they are convinced of the majority solution or because they recognize that arguing would be futile.

(4) Reinforcement phase (Performing)
A consensus among members emerges and solutions are agreed. Individual members are given a specific assignment for carrying out decisions and arrangements are made for following up on these assignments.

The above four phases almost always occur. If a leader emerges or is appointed early, his background work may help reach the final stage a little faster

CHANGING STYLE OF COMMUNICATION

CHANGING STYLE OF COMMUNICATION

It is a journey starting with change in the mindset of the individual – changing it from negative thinking to a positive one.
It signifies changing from „I should‟ to „I want to‟ and finally to „I will‟. The subtle differences in these stages of transition are:

(1) „I should‟
Such statements demonstrate powerlessness that places the ability to act quite outside the control of the speaker. These are passive statements and rarely, result in getting people to act.

(2) „I want to‟
These statements include expression of the intent to the desired level in a speaker. The listener taking action, as a result, is likely.

(3) „I will‟
Such statements are assertive as they claim ownership of the idea and present the concept to the listener in the present tense of „here and now‟. The speaker takes control of the idea and listeners‟ acting on it becomes imminent.