Listening and Feedback: The Other Half of Communication
I love, love, love this chapter. It's all about Listening and Feedback. Two very essential aspects of communication. When someone first comes into the field of communication, this is probably not what they think of when they say the word 'communication'. However, it is essential to our everyday communication with other people. This chapter covers:
Motivation
The Four Components of Listening
Active Listening
Feedback: Responding to the Message
Chapter Objectives:
1). Explain the importance of listening.
2). Identify the role played by motivation in effective listening.
3). Outline the four components of listening.
4). Identify the barriers to effective listening.
5). Define active listening.
6). Clarify the barriers to active listening.
7). Discuss the eight guidelines for feedback.
8). Describe constructive feedback techniques.
The chapter starts out by introducing the idea of effective listening, by giving you a transcript of one of my very favorite skits of all time: Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?". Pages 128-129 give an introduction to the ideas covered in the chapter, and those pages also include material to give some context to the principles the authors will cover throughout the chapter.
Page 130 covers the very first major concept in the chapter: Motivation! One MUST have motivation to become a better listener. It doesn't just happen by accident, although that would be nice, wouldn't it? There are many life-enhancing experiences because of active listening that your authors point out. Go ahead and read about it. :)
The next concept the book covers is: The Four Components of Listening. These components are:
1). Sensing (Hearing the Message)
2). Interpreting the Message
3). Evaluating the Message Content
4). Memory: Retaining and Responding to the Message
Each of these are necessary phases of the listening process. Understanding each step, or section, can be beneficial to diagnose our lack of listening at times (or others). Familiarity with each step of the Four Components of Listening can help you in your course projects, but can also help you in everyday life with folks around you.
This section segues nicely into one of my favorite aspects of listening: Active Listening! The book defines active listening as, "When we engage in active listening, we respond verbally and nonverbally to the other group members, letting them know we are paying attention. We become part of the transaction and take responsibility for understanding their meanings." What a great concept for both small group communication, while interacting in groups, but also for wider use. I'm sure that if you have taken any other communication class in the past, active listening was a part of that class. Heck, I teach the concept in a lot of my classes, simply because it is an incredibly useful tool in dyadic communication (and also small group communication). I'm sure you will be able to observe active listening while observing your small groups for the final project in this course.
While Active Listening is key, there are some barriers to active listening. The book goes on to describe the following barriers:
1). Lack of Interest
2). Distracting Delivery
3). External and Internal Noise
4). Arrogance and Disrespect
5). Preprogrammed Emotional Responses
6). Ambusing
7). Listening for Facts
8). Faking Attention - Psudolistening
9). Thought Speed
10). Other Barriers
Hmmmmmm, could there be a reason why your authors use multiple pages to cover listening? Active listening? Barriers to Active Listening? Active Listening Response Methods? (Had this been an in person class, I would have inserted some type of joke here _______ ). ;)
But honestly, there is a huge section of this chapter dedicated to Active Listening. Why? Because understanding different issues associated with active listening is incredibly important to the process of communication across a number of different areas.
The next section explains Active Listening Response Methods. These include:
1). Paraphrasing
2). Expressing Understanding
3). Asking Questions
4). Using Nonverbal Communication
Have you ever had a misunderstanding with someone? I'm talking BIG misunderstanding? Did you ever employ any of these methods? Personal Note: A couple of my best friends are Marriage and Family Therapists. They use these methods all the time when it comes to counseling folks, whether that be family members having a hard time communicating, partner relationships (husband/wife, and the like), best friends going through a conflict, etc... In short, these methods are relevant and they really do work! Sometimes being a bit more attentive to the process of listening and active listening is key to understanding the other person.
And finally we come to Feedback, both Providing Constructive Feedback and Receiving Feedback. Providing constructive feedback is essential when communicating. We do this constantly, although we may not label it 'constructive feedback'. But that's not where I want to camp for a second. When reading through this chapter again (for the millionth time throughout my career *noI'mnotbitter* - kidding of course), the first sentence of the section on receiving feedback kind of struck me. It says, "When you are receiving feedback, the first thing to do is to breathe." Again, had this been a f2f class I would have inserted a joke of sorts *here", but honestly, this can be great advice, right? Let's face it folks, receiving feedback can sometimes be a bit difficult, right? I remember receiving a 'less than stellar' grade from a professor when I was in college. I was one of those students who generally earned high grades (surprise, right?). On a paper that I thought was pretty good, I earned a lower grade than expected. Heck, having earned mostly "A's" through college, anything less than an "A" was lower than expected. But I digress..... When I received the feedback from my professor (a wonderful professor in our department at SJSU who is now retired), I was shocked. But I maintained my composure and asked the professor to clarify the grade and to let me know what I could do on the next paper/project to improve my grade. We had a short, but great conversation. I did not 'get offended', rather I listened to what the professor had to say and employed the ideas and suggestions given. I used the techniques suggested in the 'receiving feedback' section of the text. It works folks! :)
I hope that you have learned and/or reviewed some concepts in this chapter that will help you in your future communication interactions, both in small group and in dyads.
(Can you tell I really loved this chapter? Yeah, I'm a bit of a communication geek). :)
No comments:
Post a Comment