5 Responses

1. A Suggestion for Listening Materials
   Leanne,

   I work for Booher Consultants in the USA and we have a wonderful 6 module listening course that may meet your needs. You can get information on the course online at http://www.booherconsultants.com. Let me know if I can be of any help.

   Scott Stein

2. listening skills for mentoring
   The Coaching & Mentoring Network is a free web-based information resource dedicated to coaching and mentoring.

   As we know, the key to listening is to not only ensure that we have heard correctly but also that we are able to interpret correctly. Imperative for mentors is the ability to do so without imposing personal views or judgement but to understand from the mentee’s viewpoint. There are simple exercises to demonstrate both of these although implementing these skills can be more challenging!

   We’re happy to help so please feel free to get in touch. 0870 733 3313 or email annabg@coachingnetwork.org.uk

3. Listening skills ideas
   2 ideas for you…
   1. person A tells a story to person B the brief should be that the story is personal, something B hasn’t heard before, and starts with “my most…….experience was.
   Person A speaks for up to two minutes, B may NOT make notes. Aftert he event B has to write down as much of the story as (s)he can recall. A then checks this. Works even better if you have a group and can video the whole event before the writing.
   2. A and B sit back to back. A describes a diagram or picture. B has to try to replicate the picture as it is told. NB look for initial things like orientation of the paper
   GOOD LUCK

4. Listening activity
   As a warm-up, we have used a version of Chinese Whispers – teams of about 8 people, both team leaders are given a short piece and then whisper to next in team until the end. Last person writes down what he has heard and gives to Learning Co-ordinator/facilitator. Some interesting versions of the original story are usually received, showing quite dramatically how we distort the message we hear.

5. 2x Listening Activities
   Dear Leanne,

   Here are two activities that I’ve used. I’m not sure of the original sources but I think?? the first is from a book by Yvonne Craig “Learning for Life” pub. Mowbray:

   Exercise 1
   Part one: team up a speaker, a listener and an observer. Ask the speaker to speak (say two-three minutes) on a subject they are interested in. The listener is to ‘actively’ listen with verbal and non-verbal evidence. The observer’s role is to pick these up. Review experience in small then larger group.

   Part 2: Ask the listener to activly display they are not listening (e.g. yawning, staring out of window, reading notes etc.) Usually the speaker dries up very quickly.
   Again review in small then larger group.

   Exercise Two is much more advanced and deals not just with listening to words but with interpreting the values behind them. (links with NLP)

   For picking up values, perhaps after an input on visual cues (word stress, wideing of eyes, repetition, skin tone changes etc)
   In pairs one party describes an important celebnration in their lives. The listener tries to identify what the speaker holds dear and then plan a irthday party for them based on what they picked up of the speakers values.

   E.G. I did this with one person who repeated the word “family” eighteen times in two minutes with regular heavy stress on that word. It was obviously important to her but I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if I hadn’t been actively listening for these cues.

   Hope this helps. Please drop me a line if you need more clarification.

   Michael.Holland@umn.org.np

   Michael