The Importance of Active Listening

An important skill for open inquiry is active listening. While this may seem self-evident, the skill of active listening is rarely modeled in contemporary life, particularly for college students. Active listening requires concentrated energy to listen to another person. It requires concerted effort to put aside the natural tendency to be (1) focusing attention on our own affairs or concerns while pretending to listen, (2) focusing attention on our own story of experience that we are waiting to contribute to the conversation, or (3) focusing attention on finding flaws in the other’s logic so that we can counter with our own arguments. Real listening also requires that positive intent be assumed, as well as attention to the other’s feelings through verbal and nonverbal cues (Brookfield, 1987).

Active Listening Training

Choose an issue that the group wishes to discuss. Form yourselves into a circle and ask one person to volunteer to start the conversation. This person has to speak about the chosen issue for two minutes. After two minutes, the next person in the circle speaks for two minutes, but the second person must begin their contribution by paraphrasing the comments of the first participant. The second person must also show in their remarks how what they are saying is grounded in the comments of the first participant. After two minutes, the second participant stops speaking and the next person in the circle begins to speak.

The ground rules are that no one may be interrupted while speaking, no one may speak out of turn in the circle, each person is allowed only two minutes to speak, each person must begin by paraphrasing the comments of the previous participant, and each person must strive to show how their remarks are grounded in the comments of the previous speaker. After each participant has had a turn to speak, the floor is open for general reactions and the ground rules no longer apply.

The point of this exercise is to give people training in active and attentive listening to the remarks of another. No one can rehearse their comments in their heads instead of listening. No one is penalized for being the fourth, eighth, or last participant because each person’s contributions must be grounded in the previous person’s story. This exercise also helps people to develop cumulative and collective insights by showing how new contributions are triggered by previous comments.

 

 Enhancing Productive Dialogue