Effective Listening

One of the common complaints that people have is that others do not listen to them. When asked as to how they themselves contribute to that problem, they fail to introspect. The problem is not addressed as communication failure. There are four types of communication: reading, writing, speaking and listening. People spend an enormous amount of time practicing the first 3 methods but are seemingly unaware of the need to practice listening. We have a tendency to rush in, fix up things with good advice. But often we fail to spend time to look at the problem from the other person’s perspective. We fail to understand a person from his frame of reference. This hampers effective interpersonal communication.

The Purple Centre’s lectures on Effective Listening are a helpful tool in overcoming the barriers of ineffective listening. The lecture content is as follows:

1. Levels of listening:
   • Ignoring
   • Pretending
   • Selective listening
   • Attentive listening
2. The Response Technique:
   • Evaluate
   • Probe
   • Advise
   • Interpret
3. Basic principles to any meaningful communication:
   • Ethos
   • Pathos
   • Logos