Terminal distraction rules in 2022. So, most of us need to take concrete steps toward becoming more active and engaged listeners in any collaborative endeavor.
More active and engaged listening, however, involves a range of behaviors and skills all of us need to cultivate more consciously. Doing so in your activities related to the course will not only help you produce stronger work, but becoming a more active and engaged listener now better prepares you for your transition to the globalized digital economy of the 21st century after graduation.
Here are 10 steps you can take toward becoming a more active and engaged listener in your digital collaborative learning:
1) Minimize distractions and face in the direction of the speaker. Silence your iPhones or other gadgets and flip ‘em over, so they are face down on the table, and you are not tempted to glance at them, reply to incoming texts, or any other technological temptations. If you are comfortable doing so, establish and maintain eye contact with the person speaking.
2) Pay attention to non-verbal cues too. That means paying attention to, not only the speaker’s, but your own facial expression, body language, and tone of voice during your discussion. Much like reading a roomful of people if you will.
Think about which seems more open and receptive to exchange of ideas an information from a speaker’s point of view. Is it pleasant facial expressions, leaning forward to engage, normal speaking volume and pitch of voices? Or is it belligerent grimaces, slouching back in your chair as though you don’t really care and you’re only in the room because you have to be there, arms folded across your chest, and loud, combative tones of voice?
3) Don't interrupt. This is a tough one when the topic of discussion involves a difficult, or uncomfortable issue. But hearing out the other person is important. Constantly interrupting someone else risks coming across as controlling, intimidating, and closed off to other’s ideas. It’s not an effective, or inclusive way to share, learn, get things accomplished in either a classroom or workplace setting.
4) Listen without judging, or jumping to conclusions. To put it another way, hear the other person out before making up your mind about them, or the information they share. And who knows? You might learn something unexpected, interesting, and highly relevant to your work together.
It’s one more way to foster a more cohesive and collegial dynamic within your student learning team here on campus, or once you enter the globalized digital economy after graduation where teamwork and committees have been part of the scenery for quite some time. So, it pays to cultivate the habit or listening without judging or jumping to conclusions now.
5) Don't start planning what to say next while listening to someone else speak. This is another bad habit many of us fall into, but when we are busy thinking over our next statement in reply to what someone might be saying at the moment, our attention waivers, even if unintentional, and we can miss important information without meaning to.
A more effective approach is to jot down that thought in your notes, let the person currently speaking finish, and then ask or reply to what has been said once you have more information.
6) Show that you are actually listening to a speaker or group discussion, interested, and engaged in the wider conversation, through things like posture, how you sit your seat, hand gestures, note-taking, nodding your head when you agree with something that is shared, and so forth. When you think about it, it’s amazing how much we can communicate non-verbally.
Whether you mean to, or not, things like fidgeting with your hair, rustling for something in your backpack, or staring out the window all suggest that you are not really involved in the discussion taking place in the moment, and you would rather be somewhere else. And while that might be true, such behaviors are not conducive to effective collaboration with the exchange and development of ideas as its goal.
7) Don't impose your opinions or solutions on everyone else. Not only is that overbearing, but it ignores that fact that others might have equally valid ideas about how to address a task or solve a problem.
Ideally, a team of people should have a clear discussion in which ALL ideas are presented, examined, and evaluated before decisions and approaches are finalized. For that to work, however, everyone needs to be physically and mentally present in real time either face to face or through whatever conferencing application or software you use to collaborate.
FYI, a series of disjointed text messages or tweets won’t do the trick when it comes to effective collaboration and communication of ideas.
8) Stay focused as part of being a more active listener. This point harkens back to previous suggestions about minimizing distractions and personal habits not conducive to active listening. By the same token, remaining focused can also mean sticking to the topic at hand.
As one of my students put it in a highly thoughtful and well-presented podcast episode of her own recently, be conscious of each other’s time. Stay on task and on topic to get things accomplished without wasting valuable time and mental energy, or raising collective frustration levels among your student learning team members.
9) Ask questions. Once a speaker or speakers have finished you can demonstrate your interest and engagement in what has been said by asking follow-up questions of various kinds, making connections to related points, or seeking clarifications to make sure you understand what has been shared with you. AS long as they are on topic and do not drift toward the frivolous, asking questions demonstrates your interest and engagement in the topic at hand.
10) Paraphrase and summarize what you have heard and absorbed when it is your turn to speak. Doing so indicates not only that you are engaged in the discussion, but it helps you process and absorb new information while also providing room for your teammates add either clarifying remarks, or other information that contribute to the overall value of the exchange. In turn, that will contribute to the emergence of interesting, multifaceted thinking about and development of your collaborative projects.
These related steps, guidelines really, will help you become a more active and engaged listener, whether your collaboration takes place face to face, or via real time digital medium like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or similar where student learning team members actually see and hear each other in real time. Like email, texting or chatting with each other is not really the most effective or efficient way for your team to carry out collaborative work each week.
Finally, mindful cultivation of active listening skills now prepares you for a more seamless transition to the globalized digital economy of the 21st century following graduation.
-- Prof. Schwartz
Comments
Post a Comment