Listening in Groups

Listening

The ability to understand, analyze,respect, and appropriately respond to the meaning of another person's spoken and non-verbal messages.

Time Spent Listening

How Well Do We Listen?

• Most people cannot accurately report 50% percent of a spoken message.
• Without training, most people listen at only 25% efficiency.
• Listeners often distort or misunderstand the intended meaning of spoken messages.

Types of Memory

1. Short Term Memory
2. Working Memory

• Short-term memory
  The content a person remembers immediately after listening to a series of numbers, words, sentences, or paragraphs.
• Working memory
  The subsystem we . use to understand, remember, or use information to solve a problem or communicate with others.

Types of Listening

1. Discriminative Listening
2. Comprehensive Listening
3. Empathic Listening
4. Analytical Listening
5. Appreciative Listening

Discriminative and Comprehensive Listening

Discriminative Listening:
Do you accurately distinguish auditory and/or visual stimuli? Comprehensive Listening: Do you accurately understand the meaning (main ideas and arguments) of messages?

Empathic and Analytical Listening

Empathic Listening:
Do you understand and identify with a member's situation, feelings, or motives?

Analytical Listening:
Do you analyze and form appropriate opinions about the content of a message?

Appreciative Listening

• Do you appreciate the way group members speak and think?
• Do you appreciate the use of effective language?
• Do you appreciate a member's humor, persuasiveness, or eloquence?

PowerPoint Quiz

Bob and Ray present very different solutions to a problem. Which type of listening should the group use to assess their proposed solutions?
a) Analytical listening
b) Empathic listening
c) Comprehensive listening
d) Appreciative listening
e) Discriminative listening


Group Roles and Listening

• Members who assume important task roles are often good comprehensive and analytical listeners.
• Members who assume important maintenance roles are often good empathic and appreciative listeners.

Leadership and Listening

Effective Leaders:
Effective Leaders are good listeners.Effective Leaders know when and how to use comprehensive, empathic, analytical,and appreciative listening.Effective Leaders are proactive listeners.

Major Listening Strategies

Use your extra thought-speed.Listenig Strategies to listen more effectively.Apply the Golden Listening Rule.

Speech vs. Thought Speed

• Most people talk at 125-150 words per minute.
• People think at 400+ words per minute.
• Thought speed is the speed at which most people can think compared to the speed at which they can speak.
• What do you do with this excess time?

Use Your Extra Thught Speed

• Use your extra thought speed to..
• identify and summarize main ideas.
• interpret nonverbal behavior.
• analyze arguments.
• assess the message's relevance.

Apply the Golden Listening Rule

Listen to others as you would have them listen to you.




Suspend your own needs in order to listen to someone else's.

Group Listening Skills

• Listen for big ideas.
• Overcome distractions.
• "Listen" to nonverbal behavior.
• Listen before you leap.
• Help your group listen.

The Art of Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing

• The ability to restate what people say in a ay that indicates you understand them
• A form of feedback that asks "Am I right--is this what you mean?"
• Matches the content, depth, meaning, and language of a member's message

Practice Paraphrasing

Group Member: "I get really annoyed when André yells at us during a meeting."
Paraphrase:___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Group Member: How are we going to get an A on this project if we can't even find time to meet? Paraphrase:___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PowerPoint Quiz

_________________refers to the degree to which you match the importance of and emotions in the speaker's message in a paraphrase.
a) Paraphrasing content
b) Paraphrasing depth
c) Paraphrasing meaning
d) Paraphrasing language
e) Paraphrasing nonverbal


Male-Female Listening

• Men
  are more likely to be comprehensive and analytical listeners.Men tend to hear facts.
• Women
  are more likely to be empathic and appreciative listeners. Women are usually more aware of the mood of communication.

Myers-Briggs & Listening

• Introverts: Good comprehensive listeners.
• Extroverts: More eager to speak than listen.
• Sensors: Listen for facts and figures.
• Intuitives: Listen for key ideas and themes.
• Thinkers: Effective analytical listeners.
• Feelers: Effective empathic listeners.
• Judgers: Leap to conclusions.
• Perceivers: Effective appreciative listeners.

Chinese Symbol for Listening



Taking Notes in Groups

• Adjust note-taking to a member's speaking style.
• Highlight information and actions on the group's agenda.
• Use a Meeting Notes Form.

- Record important ideas and data.
- Record action items.


Self-Listening in Groups

• Monitor and understand the effects of what you say.
• Translate feedback into useful
• information about the way you speak and listen.
• Be aware of and analyze your internal thought processes: What you want to say may not be what you should say.
1. What dol want to say?
2. What are the consequences of saying what I
3. want to say?
4. Have I listened comprehensively?
5. Have I listened critically?
6. Have I listened empathically?
7. Have I listened appreciatively?
8. So, what should I say?

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