What's the secret to good listening skills? Scott Cullen has some surprising, but very practical answers.

One exercise which I use which focuses on listening skills is the following:

When delegates return from break, start reading an extract from an article, you can do things such as turning your back, covering your mouth, speaking in monotone etc. Once you have finished ask delegates to grab a pen and paper and read out each question (usually five) which relates to what you have just read out.

Once you have checked the answers, you should only get a few right answers, you can ask what happened and why no one got five out of five.

The reasons/points they raise are aspects of listening that we sometimes take for granted, but need to be considered such as: being ready, being aware of any barriers, etc.

If you want to email me Scott.Cullen@southernrailway.com I can send you some of the articles that I use – anything will do, as long as you can get about five questions from the content. I find the more bizarre the better. My favourite one is about salmon farming in Scotland!

I might also be able to dig out some other listening exercises that I used to use when I worked for a Contact Centre

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Listening exercise for call centre

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