Are you listening? I’ve heard people complain that no one listens to them but have they stopped long enough to hear… themself? Do they ever listen to what they say? What is it they want to say that would entice others to listen? And equally important – what is so life changing or impactful that is critical or sufficiently important? Granted not everything spoken is designed to be profound. But… do we want to communicate?
My first question though is… ‘how’ do you listen? Do you listen to the entire statement made by the other person? Or are you forming your response based on the first half of their sentence? Be honest. We all mentally fill in the rest of the sentence for the speaker – whether or not that’s where they go. But stop for a moment – how does it make you feel when it’s obvious that the listener hasn’t a clue about what you just said?
I wonder how many misunderstandings wouldn’t have occurred if we all just allowed the other person to finish speaking before we respond.? But that’s only half the problem in communication. The other part is speaking/listening with the same word understandings. Simply because we use the same words doesn’t mean we use the same definitions… nor does the fact that we don’t use the same words mean that we aren’t saying the same thing.
The issue is noise v. communication. Noise is just saying your piece and letting the other person say theirs but going no further with it. Communication takes work! If you want the other person to understand what you want to communicate you take the time to see if they heard you and understood. And as a listener you do the same thing – discover if what you heard is what they said. It isn’t a battle and the effort may stem a battle. But it truly depends on which stance you take: noise or communicating.
…but, what do you think?
