The art of active listening

Active listening is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. Often when people talk to each other, they don’t listen attentively. They are often distracted, half listening, half thinking about something else. When people are engaged in a conflict, they are often busy formulating a response to what is being said. They assume that they have heard what their opponent is saying many times before, so rather than paying attention; they focus on how they can respond to win the argument.

Active listening is a structured form of listening and responding that focuses the attention on the speaker. The listener must take care to attend to the speaker fully, and then repeats, in the listener’s own words, what he or she thinks the speaker has said. The listener does not have to agree with the speaker--he or she must simply state what they think the speaker said. This enables the speaker to find out whether the listener really understood.

Active listening has several benefits. First, it forces people to listen attentively to others. Second, it avoids misunderstandings, as people have to confirm that they do really understand what another person has said. Third, it tends to open people up, to get them to say more.

Workshop Objectives:

• Be able to analyze and have an increased understanding of the techniques of effective listening
• Discuss the skills of communication and focus on the art of listening

• Understand the difference between passive and active listening and know when to use each
• Use acceptance responses to communicate to the staff that he/she is being heard without interrupting the flow of thought
• Repeat critical elements of the conversation verbatim to ensure understanding
• Paraphrase what the staff says to confirm understanding
• Ask clarifying questions to get a full and clear understanding
• Organize and summarize key elements of the conversation to assure understanding
• Get feedback from the customer throughout the conversation to confirm accurate understanding of the communication
• Utilize active listening skills to strengthen the bonds of trust and rapport
• Know that until the staff feels that his/her situation is clearly understood, he/she will resist hearing solutions
• Use transition sentences to introduce a different point of view in order to help the staff save face, avoid arguments and increase acceptance