Can you hear me now?

I participated in two different business-related workshops this month.  While both were exhausting for different reasons, they were also invigorating.  Were there ropes-climbing-team-building type exercises or lots of fancy business dinners?  No, that wasn't it.  Was it because I was in a room with a lot of talented, intelligent, funny people?  No (although that helped).  And I am not trying to brown-nose them either.

Actually, an interesting phenomenon occurred.  I realized that people were actually listening to what I said.  And, I listened back!  I heard their side of the story and often changed my stance based on what was presented because they were right.

I know, right?  Professionals listening to one another?  Yes, it's true.  They weren't just listening to me.  We all listened to each other.  We came up with good ideas and tossed out bad ones.  We solved problems.  We may have hurt feelings once and a while too, but we got over that quickly and got up to fight again.

Yes, I know.  It's almost like spotting Bigfoot.  A bunch of adults had a healthy exchange of words!  And- even scarier- it happened more than once!

So why am I sharing this ah-ha moment with you?  We can all benefit from listening, and I mean really listening, to each other.  You can gain insight into people, processes and technology that you never thought possible.  Some good tips that I found on active listening (thank you MindTools):

1. Pay Attention

2. Show That You're Listening

3. Provide Feedback

4. Defer Judgment

5. Respond Appropriately

 

Think about it: we listen to a bunch of noise all day in our work and attempt to clear the white noise to find out what is meaningful.  I challenge you to do this with other human beings.  Careful, though.  You might learn something.