ABSTRACT
Listening and active listening are two entirely different skills. During a training exercise, pairs were encouraged to talk for three minutes with the other person simply nodding and offering non-verbal encouragement. It is quite astounding to have the rare experience of being listened to absolutely, even for such a short time. This does demonstrate that most dialogue and conversation is lost with distractions, interruptions, background noise, etc. Observe how often it appears that a participant in a conversation is thinking of something to say, whilst we speak. How often do you have 100 per cent of someone’s attention with no interruption or distraction? An active listener uses a range of techniques including prompting, summarising, paraphrasing and acknowledging points using visual aids. Good eye contact is essential and use of non-verbal cues such as matching – see above.
