The Quality of Our Listening

Matt Damon was once asked how important it is to listen as an actor. “Listening is everything,” he said. Geraldine Page once noted, “If we could only listen on stage like the animals in the forests do – as though our lives depended on it.” And finally, Stephen Covey, famed author of The 7 Habit of Highly Effective People once observed “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply."

I’m convinced a great deal of miscommunication begins with the quality of  our listening. Whether the cashier at your favorite coffee shop asks you, “Hot or cold and what size?” after you’ve clearly relayed you want a medium hot tea, or divides widen on more polarizing issues like gun control or immigration when a consensus may be closer than one believes overshadowed by taking a snippet of what one has said, and molding it into something completely different.

Listening matters. But heightened listening, whether on stage or not, with the intent to appreciate another’s point of view makes all the difference.