How to listen

To understand your audience better, one must follow the first step of communication - observation, or the art of ‘intricate listening’.

We all intuitively know how important listening is to communication, but how many of us know how to listen.  Listening, is naturally not limited to the auditory function and comprises of combined 'listening' of all senses put together, including cognitive and the extra-sensory. When all this is fused, one becomes far more aware of the communication environment, giving rise to a highly ‘intuitive’ awareness. 

With koan-like wisdom, the Chinese symbol ‘to listen’ is a self-explanatory amalgamation of five sub-parts which include symbols for ‘ear’, ‘you’, ‘eyes’, ‘undivided attention’ and ‘heart’, shown here.

Lets look at the four stages of listening. First and foremost, listen with your eyes - what do you see. Trust your eyes before your ears. Secondly, give the communicator your undivided attention without any visible distractions or mind distractions. This will help you absorb without any dilution. Thirdly, listen with your heart - implying that you must empathize and 'feel' for what is being communicated. This will help you interpret underlying messages. And last of all, listen with your ear - into what is being said. 

If you combine these four forces into listening, you will have an enriching experience with the world. 

(some parts of this blog piece have been extracted from the author's recent book, Decoding Communication)