May ’24 – Listen
Week 5 – A Simple Listening Exercise That Always Leads to Insight
-
Week 5 – A Simple Listening Exercise That Always Leads to Insight
It was again a small but mighty group. We discussed a couple questions Chris had for the group:
– What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say, “Listen to what your team has to share.” The unanimous response was, “Negativity. Complaints.” Chris then asked how can we better listen and lead to where we have a more positive mindset when we think about getting feedback from the team.
Then Sarah shared the exercise we were going to practice in session. But we decided to describe it, discuss and then break for the beautiful day. Here’s the exercise:
- Grab a friend, a colleague, a family member, a stranger (if you’re that bold!) – anyone you want to know a little more about and who is open to sharing a little bit about themselves.
- Pull out your cell phones.
- One person takes on the role of listener – the other is the speaker/sharer.
- The person sharing starts by opening up their home screen on their phone and sharing whatever they want about it. What apps they have, how they are organized and why, what the background image means to them, most used, how they interact with it, etc…
- The listeners job is to, well, listen. Be encouraging, react authentically to what is being shared. If the sharing pauses, just wait a little to see if more comes. Any prompts used should be open-ended like, “That’s interesting. Could you say more about …”. The listener avoids leading questions or interjecting their own interpretations.
- As the person sharing gets beyond the basics, one should start to hear delightful stories, learn more about what the person cherishes or dreads, and things that you would have never guessed. You’ll also probably learn about a cool app or two. 🙂
- When the time feels right, switch roles!
Here’s the session recording:
-
0 Replies
Sorry, there were no replies found.
Log in to reply.