Category Archives: Communications & Technology

Listen

21 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by in Communications & Technology, Leadership, People

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What would be different this week if everyone committed to listening slightly more deliberately and consciously to those around us?  Thought leaders from varied fields and backgrounds speak about listening.  “People don’t listen well; when people talk, listen completely.  Most people never listen.” Ernest Hemmingway.

Our short term memory’s ability to gather and store words is inadequate to capture the vocal ability to share words and the mind’s ability to generate thought.  Add to this imbalance the increasing volume of mental noise and distractions – texts, calls, meetings, websites, video, reading, etc. It’s no wonder we miss so much of what our employees, colleagues, partners and even our clients are trying to communicate.  “The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent.” Alfred Brendel.

What would be different if we each made a conscious decision to listen more?  How much time would pass in the day before you realize that you already forgot this commitment, and you have quickly fallen back into the habit so many of us have – we move from listening to talking, mentally drifting off to another thought, or reach for the alluring draw of our device.

Make the commitment to listen and then monitor yourself; notice what it feels like to actually listen to the person in front of you.  How hard or easy is it to focus on them? When you’re engaging with someone, notice:

How long does it take for you to begin feeling that inner urge to speak?  To say something, anything?  Feel that welling up of words in your throat.  Notice your inner dialogue, planning what you’re going to say in response.  Are you listening to them or your own thoughts?

Then ask yourself “why do I need to say this?”  Really consider and reflect on this question.  What will you gain by giving in to the urge to say something, interject, interrupt, correct? What is truly driving this urge?  “Listening is an art that requires attention over talent, spirit over ego, others over self.”  Dean Jackson.

What would it mean to your employee, client, partner or child to feel you have heard them, listened completely and authentically without prejudgment, or a desire or intention to respond? Sit back, relax and listen, really hear the words, how they are spoken; notice tone, emotions and expressions.Ask yourself, what is this person really telling me and wanting me to know, and why?  As Covey has famously said, “Seek first to understand, and then to be understood”.

If you find you are challenged to really listen and focus, then look deeper. Is this a bad habit, or something more? What are you thinking?

  • I have something more pressing or important than this person’s needs.
  • I know more than this person so I need to say something to make sure they understand that.
  • I should be talking; I’m not sure why I just feel compelled to talk.
  • What if I miss out on something that just happened; I should check my email.
  • I’m too busy to sit here and just listen to this.

What would be different if we each listened more, as Covey gave us that timeless quote: “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”  Listening takes courage.  It takes courage to let go of the fact that you don’t have to appear to be the smartest or most interesting or most important person.  “People talk not to communicate but to avoid communication.”  Osho.

If you feel challenged to really listen, try to honestly self-reflect. Do any of these apply to you?

  • Another person may know something I don’t or know more than I do.
  • Acknowledge that you talk sometimes because you need validation from others.
  • Admit you may have the need to appear smart, intelligent and important.
  • Consider that you talk from a place of unhealthy competition.
  • You reach for your device to feed a need for constant distraction.
  • Or just admit it’s a really bad habit that you need to work on.

Then, let’s each decide to find the courage to change.  What would be different?

 

Changing with Technology

18 Saturday May 2013

Posted by in Communications & Technology

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Technology is radically and rapidly changing the way we communicate.  Through the internet and mobile devices, people receive news and information constantly, getting instant gratification for every whim to know more.  This driving change has left some professional fields in a state of reaction.  To move from reaction to action, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill offers Technology and Communication studies.  The graduate coursework, which I completed last year, is offered though the UNC School of Journalism and focuses on how technology is changing how we communicate, learn and interact in our world of instant access.

Some journalists seem to be struggling to find their identity and their value in a technology enabled world.  Through video enabled mobile devices and social media, the masses are empowered to capture and share their own news to the same audience that a large media conglomerate reaches, and for no cost. As we watch CNN or Fox news, it seems that journalists behave as if their competition may be another media company.  The truth is that citizen journalists have already won the first to report competition. Through the UNC courses, journalists directly explore the world through a technology lens, learning new skills and methods of gathering and reporting news and information, and the added step of interacting with their reader or viewer.

My college degree and early working career focused on journalism, followed by a professional path that led to extensive work in corporate training.  While my professional profile may have appeared unique in the UNC Chapel Hill class, the challenges and issues I brought to the table were very similar to my journalist colleagues.  Employees no longer rely exclusively on employer sponsored, formal training courses to be proficient in their professional fields.  Technology enables employees to have significantly more choices in how and what they learn, collaborate and share.  Employees everywhere can reach out on their own time and devices, targeting what they believe they need to know, and explore their specific interests.  They can even become the informal teacher and trainer through online methods.  Rather than directing and managing employee learning, some corporate training groups and human resource professionals are reacting and even struggling to get insight into employees’ self-directed learning.  Other training professionals have shifted their mindset and are embracing technology as a powerful independent learning tool, and even offering a variety of social media options within the corporate walls.  Even with this progress, the question remains, how do we provide value to employees when they can garner their own resources for work place development?

Consumers of news and employees of corporations have become self-directed and self supported.  As professionals in our fields, we can lead the merging of technology and communication to make us all better.  Our value lies in our abilities and willingness to support our audiences in their exploration and pursuit of their unique interests and needs.  We can help them navigate the massive amount of information, providing the means for them to manage the heavy stream of new technology options and constant flood of information.  We can support them by guiding them to credible and trustworthy sources, helping them prioritize where they spend their time and help focus their learning.  We can offer bridges to communication tools that take peer sharing, posting of new ideas and best practices to an entirely new level of effectiveness.  Our new identity doesn’t lie in a dated mindset as only providers of filtered, approved and controlled content.  Our value exists as guides and navigators of credible information and effective communication through technology.