Non-listening was an interesting concept discussed in
chapter 6. It was interesting to learn about all the different types of
non-listening. I’ve always thought of myself as a fairly engaging
communicator. As a result, I believed I
understood how to listen properly and respectfully.
After reading the chapter, I thought I couldn’t relate to
any of the non-listening skills until I ran into literal listening. Literal listening is a process where a person
only listens for content and ignores the relationship he or she has with the
other person. I find myself participating in this form of non-listening
predominantly at work place. My job
consists of different routines from instructing and selling contracts. A lot of the time I find myself too stuck
into the business aspect of everything, and forget that I’m dealing with people
with feelings.
My goal to eliminate this form of non-listening is to try to
not treat everyone has if they are machines.
Sale, instruction, and other activities my job consist of are not “one
size fits all”. By treating people more
like individuals I’ll be able to eliminate my habit of literal listening, and
be able to be develop closer relationships with others at my workplace.
-Jossshhuaa
Dear Jossshhuaa,
ReplyDeleteI agree that literal listening is easy do do in the workplace. Often times, we use this form of listening when we want the facts, dealing with things, and providing instruction or clarification without engaging in conversation with a person beyond what is necessary. It is like pseudolistening in a way, which is my weakness, because we tend to only pick up on what we want to hear and monopolize the conversation. It is as if we are in a hurry and do not have time for anything else. It is important to give people the time to speak with them and maybe we will even learn something we didn't know before.
Great post. Thanks for sharing!
-rompersb
Hey Jossshhuaa,
ReplyDeleteI also agree that literal listening is easy to do in the workplace. So many employers emphasize keeping conversations professional at work, so automatically we tend to keep the conversation limited. Having worked at various food industries, it has been commonly taught that we must keep personal talk to a minimum. "if it's not about business, it's none of your business," was the motto I learned in my recent job at In-N-Out burger. So, unless it was about burgers and fries, I generally didn't speak to too many employees. However, I realized that in order to make work enjoyable, we had to have some sort of communication that was not strictly business. I learned to incorporate interesting conversation that was fun and engaging rather than keeping it all about business. I hope you are successful in your methods in escaping literal listening!
-Elek Tricitie