The Opsimath

I hear what you say...

...except that in many conversations that have taken place today, people have not heard what the other person has been saying.

For an awful lot of people, 'listening' is simply the gap between the last thing they said and the next. It is a passive thing, rather than an active experience. If we want to really engage with people, we must work at making our listening far more active. This takes determination, it takes effort and it takes care - no wonder that so many people simply don't bother. 

So what is active listening? Here are a few thoughts:

Observation - giving careful, non-evaluative attention to the person speaking and making appropriate eye contact will enable you to gauge the emotional element of the message that you are receiving. After all, there is always more to the message than the words that are being spoken.

Reflecting Facts - by reflecting back some of the information that you are receiving, perhaps by the use of paraphrases, should help turn listening into hearing.

Summarising - by occasionally summarising what has been said, we can check our understanding and thus gain clarity about the message we are receiving.

Reflecting Feelings - we have heard the words, hopefully understood their meaning and been able to reflect and summarise them back to the speaker. Now we should also consider feeding back the emotional part of the message that we have received.

If we try some of these ideas, it is just possible that we will raise the confidence level of the speaker that they really are being heard by us, and that has got to improve the level of communication that is taking place.

Active listening - give it a try!

Resolutions for (Good) Trainers

Here's my suggestions for the top 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Business and Management Trainers:

1. I am a lifelong learner, therefore I will learn from other people - include any people that I am meant to be training
2. I will not be arrogant enough to think that I know all there is to know, so I commit to using the phrase "I don't know"
3. I will treat all delegates with fairness and tolerance, seeking first to know, to empathise
4. I will always seek to try new ways of delivery - stepping outside my comfort zone
5. I will not become dependent on visual media such as PowerPoint, and I will not use it as an instrument of boredom
6. I will check the arrangements, the logistics and my materials in advance - not taking anything for granted
7. I will seek to ask questions, in a way that will aid the learning of my delegates
8. I will try to understand what people are trying to express and not just listen to the words spoken
9. I will prioritise my own development to ensure that I 'sharpen the saw'
10. I commit to adding some value to the experience of the delegates attending the course I am leading

 

Other suggestions are welcome...

Counting Penguins

You may have heard that London Zoo have recently been carrying out a stock-take.

This is Adrian Walls - counting penguins.

How was your day at work today?

(The count of more than 16,000 mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, invertebrates and amphibians is a compulsory part of the zoo licence renewal.)

Help us fill this with learning in 2012

It may not be the most attractive building in the world, but for us, and the people in Nehemiah Primary School, it's one of the most exciting.

Nehemiah School is in the town of Yei in the world's newest nation - South Sudan, and this building is the newly emerging school library.

You may think that a new school library is still not the most exciting thing in the world, so here's a few facts:

• Less than 2% of children in the country complete primary education
• 85% of adults cannot read or write (92%  of women)
• The average class is made up of 127 pupils

It is therefore no surprise to learn that education is a major emphasis for this new country. That is why we at Roots have decided to put all our efforts in to ensuring that we get this library up and running (we are told that this library will be the first school library in the country...).

We have paid for the building, which is nearing completion. We have raised the funds to equip it with furniture and fittings. Now we need to fill it with learning - books!

As a trustee of Roots my main focus for the first part of this new year is to raise enough funds to allow our friends in Yei to purchase the books they require, and to pay for someone to run the library for them.

Interested in helping in some way?

Why not drop me an email at john@rootssudan.org

Happy New Year!