Listening Effectively

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Listening Effectively
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The Ship That Couldn't Be Sunk One of the
greatest tragedies in the history of sea travel
occurred on the night of April 14, 1912, when the
crew of the Titanic refused to listen to repeated
warnings of icebergs. The crew had been led to
believe that this brand-new passenger liner was
"unsinkable." Even after the ship struck an
iceberg and was slowly sinking, some of the
passengers ignored the captain's orders to get
into the lifeboats. When the ship finally began
tilting dangerously, it was too late. There
weren't enough lifeboats for all the passengers
and worse still, the Californian, the only other
ship in the area (about 10 miles away) made no
attempt to reach the wreck. Her radio operator
had gone off duty. He, too, wasn't listening. As
a result, more than a thousand people needlessly
lost their lives.
Wait a minute! Say that again, Doris! . . . you
know the part about, 'If only we had some means
of climbing down.'
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Listening facts

• Employees of major North American corporations
  spend 60 of time listening
• In committed relationships, listening in everyday
  conversations is ingredient of satisfaction
• The ideal manager has ability to listen
  effectively, according to 1000 human resource
  executives

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Listening vs. Hearing

• Listening Process
• Attending paying attention to a signal
• Understanding making sense of a message
• Remembering retaining and recalling
  information. Unfortunately, research suggests
  people only remember 50 immediately after
  hearing it, only 35 within eight hours and
  within 2 months only remember 25 of the original
  message.
• Active Listening indentifying the organization
  of ideas, asking questions, etc.

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• Unfortunately, people seem to get worse at the
  skill of listening as they get older
• Teachers at various grade levels were asked to
  stop their lectures periodically and ask students
  to repeat what the teacher had been saying
• 90 of first graders could repeat
• 80 of second graders could repeat
• 44 of junior high students could repeat
• 28 of senior high students could repeat

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Hearing vs. Listening

• Listening and Hearing are NOT the same thing
• Listening is active and mental
• Hearing is passive and physical
• Hearing the biological process that occurs when
  the brain detects sound waves
• Listening the process of receiving, attending
  to, constructing meaning from, and responding to
  spoken or nonverbal messages

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Reasons for Poor Listening

• Effort heart rate quickens, respiration
  increases, body temperature rises
• Rapid thought we are capable of understanding
  speech at rates up to 300 wpm, the average person
  only speaks between 100-140 wpm.
• Message overload

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Reasons for Poor Listening cont.

• Psychological noise
• Physical noise
• Hearing problems
• Faulty assumptions heard it all before,
  information is too simple or complex, information
  is unimportant
• Selective Listening

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Reasons for Poor Listening cont.

• Talking has more apparent advantages talking
  allows us to gain more (admiration, respect,
  liking). One study revealed that men interrupt
  more than women. Men interrupt to dominate or
  control conversation. Women interrupt to agree,
  elaborate on speakers idea, or participate in
  topic.
• Media Influences programming consists of short
  segments

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Attending to the Speech

• Attending - paying attention to what the speaker
  is saying regardless of extraneous interferences
• Get physically mentally ready to listen.
• Suspend judgment while you hear the speaker out.
• Adjust to the listening goals of the situation.
• Identify the benefits of attending to the
  speakers words.

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Understanding Remembering

• Understanding the ability to assign meaning to
  what was said
• Remembering being able to retain and recall
  information that you hear
• Active listening identifying the organization
  of ideas, asking questions, silently
  paraphrasing, attending to nonverbal cues, and
  taking notes

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Active Listening Behaviors

• Determine the speakers organization
• Ask yourself questions
• Silently paraphrase key information
• Attend to nonverbal cues
• Take good notes

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Critically Analyzing a Speech

• Critical analysis the process of evaluating
  what you have heard to determine a speechs
  completeness, usefulness, and trustworthiness
• Speaker credibility
• Quality of content
• Quality of structure
• Quality of delivery

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Effective vs. Ineffective Listening
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Constructive Critique

• An analysis of a speech or presentation that
  evaluates how well a speaker meets a specific
  speaking goal while following the norms for good
  speaking and that recommends how the presentation
  could be improved

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Guidelines for Constructive Critiques

• Communicate specific observations.
• Begin with observations about what a speaker did
  well before turning to what the speaker could do
  better.
• Follow observation statements with explanations
  of how and why the observed behavior affected the
  speech.
• Phrase observations so they reflect your personal
  perceptions, not truth.

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Content of Constructive Critiques

• Speechs content
• What speaker said

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Content of Constructive Critiques Cont.

• Speechs structure
• Macrostructure
• Microstructure

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Content of Constructive Critiques Cont.

• Speaker delivery
• Use of voice
• Use of body

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Websites

• Listening process
• http//www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/kline-listen/
  b10ch3.htm
• Listener etiquette
• http//www.nvcc.edu/home/npeck/spd100/etiquette.h
  tm