Listening and Responding
Wait a minute! Say that again,Doris! . . . you know the part about,'If only we had some means ofclimbing down.'
The Ship That Couldn't Be Sunk
One of the greatest tragedies in the history of seatravel occurred on the night of April 14, 1912,when the crew of the Titanic refused to listen torepeated warnings of icebergs. The crew hadbeen led to believe that this brand-new passenger liner was "unsinkable." Even after theship struck an iceberg and was slowly sinking,some of the passengers ignored the captain'sorders to get into the lifeboats.
When the ship finally began tiltingdangerously, it was too late. There weren'tenough lifeboats for all the passengers andworse still, the Californian, the only other shipin the area (about 10 miles away) made noattempt to reach the wreck. Her radio operatorhad gone off duty. He, too, wasn't listening. As aresult, more than a thousand people needlesslylost their lives.
Understand the Importance of Listening
Floyd, author of Public Speaking Matters, defines listeningand hearing.
Listening is the process of making meaning out of anotherperson’s spoken language
Hearing is the perception of sound.
•Appreciate how often you listen.
•Distinguish hearing from listening.
•Acknowledge the difference between active and passivelistening.
Time Spent Listening
Study
Population
Reading
Writing
Speaking
Listening
Rankin, 1930
Varied
15%
11%
32%
42%
Brieter, 1971
Homemakers
10%
7%
35%
48%
Weinrauch andSwanda, 1975
Business Personnel
19%
23%
26%
33%
Werner, 1975
High school, college students,employees, homemakers
13%
8%
23%
55%
Barker et. al, 1980*
U.S. College Students
17%
14%
16%
53%
Bohlken, 1999
U.S. College Students
13%
12%
22%
53%
Davis, 2000*
Australian College Students
12.30%
9.80%
30.60%
34.10%
U.S. Department of Labor,1991
Government Managers
13.30%
8.40%
23%
55%
Janusik & Wolvin, 2006
U.S. College Students
6%
8%
20%
24%
Listening facts
•Employees of major North American corporationsspend 60% of time listening.
•Of North American executives, 80% believe listeningis one of the most important skills needed in thecorporate environment.
•In committed relationships, listening in everydayconversations is ingredient of satisfaction.
•The ideal manager has ability to listen effectively,according to 1000 human resource executives
•Fewer than 2% of us have had any formal listeningtraining
•Students are in listening situations 65%-90% of thetime.
http://74.6.239.185/search/srpcache?ei=UTF-8&p=average+time+listening+student+90%25&fr=yfp-t-701&u=http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=average+time+listening+student+90%25&d=4609848658364003&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=dfbf78a9,a855f805&icp=1&.intl=us&sig=NHJx5H8lcShoDeVIui.73w--
Listening Facts cont.
•On average, viewers who just watched andlistened to the evening news could only recall17.2% of the content when not cued. Thecued group never exceeded 25% (Stauffer,Frost, & Rybold, 1983).
•The average person speaks at a rate of about125-175 wpm and one can listen at a rate ofus to 450 wpm (Carver, Johnson, & Friedman,1970)
LISTENING ACROSS THE LIFESPAN
•Elementary students reported themselves as havingbetter attention spans than all other ages and groups(Halone, Wolvin, & Coakley, 1997).
•High school students rate themselves as better ableto listen than elementary students, young adults,colleges students, adults, and the elderly (Halone,Wolvin, & Coakley, 1997).
LISTENING AND LEADERS
•Listening is tied to effective leadership (Bechler & Johnson,1995; Johnson & Bechler, 1998).
•Leaders give good attention to the speaker by looking thespeaker in the eye (Orick, 2002).
•Leaders paraphrase the speaker to ensure understanding ofthe speaker’s message (Orick, 2002).
•Leaders are able to relate accurate messages to a third party,which shows that they listening to and remembered what theoriginal speaker had said (Orick, 2002).
•Leaders listen with an open mind by not becoming emotionalor defensive (Orick, 2002).
•Leaders can listen to a speaker and be respectful by notbetraying the confidence of the speaker when asked to do so(Orick, 2002).
**Listening has been identified as one of the top skills employers seek in entry-levelemployees as well as those being promoted (AICPA, 2005; Goby & Lewis, 2000; Hynes, &Bhatia, 1996; James, 1992; Maes, Weldy, & Icenogle, 1997; Waner, 1995; Willmington, 1992;Winsor, Curtis, & Stephens, 1997).**As of the late 1990’s, 64% of organizations provided some sort of listening training for theiremployees because they find that employees’ listening skills are ineffective for today’s workenvironment (What Employers Teach, 1997). Consider the following rankings of what’s important in the interview process. The followingnumbers represent how private industry ranked the importance of the item, with 1 beingthe most important.
Curtis, Winsor, &Stephens (1989)
Maes, Weldy, &Icenogle (1997)
Winsor, Curtis, &Stephens (1997)
Oral Communication
1
1
1
Listening
2
1
3
Problem Solving
2
Self-Motivation
3
Written Communication
4
2
Technical Competence
5
5
GPA
11
13
16
LISTENING AND EDUCATION
•Even though most of us spend the majority of our day listening, it is thecommunication activity that receives the least instruction in school(Coakley & Wolvin, 1997). Listening training is not required at mostuniversities (Wacker & Hawkins, 1995). Students who are required to takea basic communication course spend less than 7% of class and text timeon listening (Janusik, 2002; Janusik & Wolvin, 2002). If students aren’ttrained in listening, how do we expect them to improve their listening?
•Listening is critical to academic success. An entire freshman class of over400 students was given a listening test at the beginning of their firstsemester. After their first year of studies, 49% of students scoring low onthe listening test were on academic probation, while only 4.42% of thosescoring high on the listening test were on academic probation. Conversely,68.5% of those scoring high on the listening test were considered HonorsStudents after the first year, while only 4.17% of those scoring lowattained the same success (Conaway, 1982).
• Students self-report less listening competencies after listening trainingthan before. This could be because students realize how much more thereis to listening after training (Ford, Wolvin, & Chung, 2000).
Types of Listening
•Appreciative listening
•Informational listening
•Critical listening
•Empathic listening
Listening and Hearing are NOT the same thing
•Hearing is a physiological process (passive and physical)
•Listening is a cognitive process (active and mental)
Listening Process (HURIER model)“We don’t necessarily have to enact the 6 stages of the HURIER model in order.Listening effectively sometimes requires us to go back and forth among them.”
1. Attending/hearing – paying attention to a signal / physicallyperceiving sound
2.Understanding – making sense of a message / decoding themessage / comprehending the words we have heard
3.Remembering – retaining the information and recalling it
Unfortunately, research suggests people only remember 50%immediately after hearing it, only 35% within eight hours andwithin 2 days only remember 20% of the original message
4. Interpreting – assigning meaning to what is heard
5. Evaluating – critically analyzing the message / judging thespeaker’s credibility and intention
4.Responding – indicating that we are listening / providing feedback
•Research shows link between effectivelistening and school success Unfortunately,people seem to get worse at the skill oflistening as they get older:
–Teachers at various grade levels were asked to stoptheir lectures periodically and ask students torepeat 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
Reasons for Poor Listening
•Effort – heart rate quickens, respirationincreases, body temperature rises
•Rapid thought – we are capable ofunderstanding speech at rates between 400-800 wpm, the average person only speaksbetween 120-150 wpm (page 91)
• Message overload
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
•Pseudolistening (fake listening)
Reasons for Poor Listening cont.
•Talking has more apparent advantages – talkingallows us to gain more (admiration, respect,liking). One study revealed that men interruptmore than women. Men don’tlisten????????Men interrupt to dominate orcontrol conversation. Women interrupt to agree,elaborate on speaker’s idea, or participate intopic.
•Media Influences – programming consists ofshort segments
•Short attention spans – A 1999 study revealedthe average attention span for adults is 20minutes or less.
Improve Your Listening
•Get physically and mentally ready to listen (Effective listenersare likely to sit uprights, lean forward, cease unnecessary movement, look directly atinstructor.)
•Resist mental distractions
•Don’t argue, interrupt, or judge prematurely – Hear thespeaker out! (We typically stop listening before they have finished if wethink we know what they are going to say)
•Observe nonverbal cues – gestures, voice, facialexpressions
•Adjust to the listening goals of the situation
•Identify the benefits of the message – Be opportunist
Improve Your Listening
•Ask questions to gain additional information
•Paraphrase
•Look for key ideas
•Repeat the information – if information is not reinforced itwill be held in short-term memory for as little as 20 seconds.
•Construct mnemonics - AURER
•Take GOOD notes