Chapter 3 - Listening - The Art of Public Speaking

# 3 Listening ## Listening Is Important Although most people listen poorly, there are exceptions. Top-flight business executives, successful politicians, brilliant teachers - nearly are all excellent listeners. So much of what they do depends on absorbing information that is given verbally - and a...

# 3 Listening ## Listening Is Important Although most people listen poorly, there are exceptions. Top-flight business executives, successful politicians, brilliant teachers - nearly are all excellent listeners. So much of what they do depends on absorbing information that is given verbally - and absorbing it quickly and accurately. If you had an interview with the president of a major corporation, you might be shocked (and flattered) to see how closely that person listened to your words. In our communication-oriented age, listening is more important than ever. According to one study, more than 60 percent of errors made in business come from poor listening. In another study, conducted by the management consulting firm Accenture, 64 percent of respondents stated that listening has become more difficult because of the digital distractions of today's workplace - phones, computers, messages, notifications, and so on. Replacing poor listening with good listening improves efficiency, sales, customer satisfaction, and employee morale. This is why, in most companies, effective listeners hold higher positions and are promoted more often than ineffective listeners. When business managers are asked to rank-order the communication skills most crucial to their jobs, they usually rank listening number one. Even if you don't plan to be a corporate executive, the art of listening can be helpful in almost every part of your life. This is not surprising when you realize that people spend more time listening than in any other communicative activity - more than reading, more than writing, more even than speaking. Think for a moment about your own life as a college student. Most class time in U.S. colleges and universities is spent listening to discussions and lectures. A number of studies have shown a strong correlation between listening and academic success. Students with the highest grades are usually those with the strongest listening skills. The reverse is also true - students with the lowest grades are usually those with the weakest listening skills. There is plenty of reason, then, to take listening seriously. Employers and employees, parents and children, wives and husbands, doctors and patients, students and teachers - all depend on the apparently simple skill of listening. Regardless of your profession or walk of life, you never escape the need for a well-trained ear. Listening is also important to you as a speaker. It is probably the way get most of your ideas and information - from television, radio, conversation, and lectures. If you do not listen well, you will not understand what you hear and may pass along your misunderstanding to others. Besides, in class - as in life - you will listen to many more speeches than you give. It is only fair to pay close attention to your classmates' speeches; after all, you want them to listen carefully to your speeches. An excellent way to improve your own speeches is to listen attentively to the speeches of other people. Over and over, instructors find that the best speakers are usually the best listeners. A side benefit of your speech class is that if offers an ideal opportunity to work on the art of listening. During the 95 percent of the time when you are not speaking, you have nothing else to do but listen and learn. You can sit there like a stone - or you can use the time profitably to master a skill that will serve you in a thousand ways. ## Listening and Critical Thinking One of the ways listening can serve you is by enhancing your skills as a critical thinker. We can identify four kinds of listening: * **Appreciative listening** - listening for pleasure or enjoyment, as when we listen to music, to a comedy routine, or to an entertaining speech. * **Empathic listening **- listening to provide emotional support for the speaker, as when a psychiatrist listens to a patient or when we lend a sympathetic ear to a friend in distress. * **Comprehensive Listening**- listening to understand the message of a speaker, as when we attend a classroom lecture or listen to directions for finding a friend's house. * **Critical Listening** - listening to evaluate a message for purposes of accepting or rejecting it, as when we listen to the sales pitch of a car salesperson or the campaign speech of a political candidate. Although all four kinds of listening are important, this chapter deals primarily with comprehensive listening and critical listening. They are the kinds of listening you will use most often when listening to speeches in class, when taking lecture notes in other courses, when communicating at work, and when responding to the barrage of commercials, political messages, and other persuasive appeals you face every day. They are also the kinds of listening that are most closely tied to critical thinking. As we saw in Chapter 1, critical thinking involves a number of skills. Some of those skills - summarizing information, recalling facts, distinguishing main points from minor points - are central to comprehensive listening. Other skills of critical thinking - separating fact from opinion, spotting weaknesses in reasoning, judging the soundness of evidence - are especially important in critical listening. When you engage in comprehensive listening or critical listening, you must use your mind as well as your ears. When your mind is not actively involved, you may be hearing, but you are not listening. In fact, listening and critical thinking are so closely allied that training in listening is also training in how to think. At the end of this chapter, we'll discuss steps you can take to improve your skills in comprehensive and critical listening. If you follow these steps, you may also become a better critical thinker. ## Four Causes of Poor Listening ### Not Concentrating The brain is incredibly efficient. Although we talk at a rate of 120 - 180 words a minute, the brain can process 400 - 500 words a minute. This would seem to make listening very easy, but actually it has the opposite effect. Because we can process a speaker's words and still have plenty of spare "brain time," we are tempted to interrupt our listening by thinking about other things. Here's what happens: A senior majoring in kinesiology, Jessica Chen is excited to be wrapping up her course work. She is particularly eager to finish her class on exercise and mental health, which meets at 3 P.M. on Fridays. Her professor is great - this is her second class with him - but keeping focused on Friday afternoon can be a challenge. On this particular Friday in April, Jessica's professor is lecturing on the relationship between body temperature and anxiety. "This calming effect," he explains, "often stems from a person's increased temperature...." "Temperature," thinks Jessica, her eyes drifting out the window next to her. "I bet it's almost 75 degrees. Beach weather. I can't wait for Newport in July...." Sternly, Jessica pulls her attention back to the lecture. Her professor is now reviewing research on regular exercise and the immune system, which Jessica heard about last semester. As a result, her attention wanders once more. "I haven't been to the gym in five days," she thinks. "But the student gym is always so busy. Maybe I should get a membership at the health club. I wonder how much that would cost?" "... a topic that Jessica encountered during her internship last summer," the professor is saying. Uh oh! What topic does the professor mean? Everyone looks at Jessica, as she frantically tries to recall the connection between exercise, the immune system, and her internship. ### Listening Too Hard Until now we have been talking about not paying close attention to what we hear. But sometimes we listen too hard. We turn into human sponges, soaking up a speaker's every word as if every word were equally important. We try to remember all the names, all the dates, all the places. In the process we often miss the speaker's main point. What is worse, we may end up confusing the facts as well. Shortly after graduating from college, Carlos Molina landed an excellent job as an app developer. Knowing he had never been good at budgeting his money, he signed up for a financial planning workshop. The first session was about retirement planning. Simone Fisher, who was conducting the workshop, explained that 7 in 10 Americans between the ages of 22 and 35 do not have a monthly budget or a savings plan. Carlos wrote down every number Simone mentioned. "To have a retirement income equal to 75 percent of your current salary," Simone continued, "you will need to invest at least 6 percent of your present earnings. You also need to account for inflation over time. This afternoon, we will meet with each of you personally to calculate your individual savings needs. in the meantime, I want to stress that the most important thing is to start saving now." Carlos zealously typed each statistic into his laptop. When Simone opened the floor for questions, Carlos raised his hand and said, "I have two questions. When should I start saving for retirement? And how do I figure out how to account for future inflation?" This is a typical example of losing the speaker's point by concentrating on details. Carlos had fixed his mind on remembering all the statistics in Simone's presentation, but he blocked out the main message - that is best to start saving now and that he would get help developing an individual plan. Rather than trying to remember everything a speaker says, efficient listeners usually concentrate on main points and evidence. We'll discuss these things more thoroughly later in the chapter. ### Jumping To Conclusions Alyssa Shields, a recent college graduate, took a job as a staff writer for a local entertainment and fashion blog. Shortly after Alyssa arrived, the blog's editor left the magazine for another job. For the next two months, Alyssa struggled to handle the former editor's blog posts by herself. She often felt in over her head, but she knew this was a good opportunity to learn, and she hated to give up her new responsibilities. One day Michael Perkins, publisher of the blog, calls Alyssa to talk. The following conversation takes place: Michael: You've done a great job these last two months, Alyssa. But you know we really need a new editor. So we've decided to make some changes. Alyssa: I'm not surprised; I know this is an important site. Michael: Yes, it is. And it's not an easy job. We really need an editor and a staff writer or two to handle all the work. That's why I wanted to tell you... Alyssa: I understand. I knew all along that I was just filling in. Michael: Alyssa, you're not listening. Alyssa: Yes, I am. You're trying to be nice, but you're going to tell me that you've hired a new editor and I'll be going back to my old job. Michael: No, that's not it at all. I think you've done a fine job under difficult circumstances. You've proved yourself, and I intend to make you the editor. We're also going to hire two new writers to work under you. Why is there so much confusion here? Clearly, Alyssa is unsure about her future at the blog. So when Michael starts to talk about making some changes, Alyssa jumps to a conclusion and assumes the worst. The misunderstanding could have been avoided if, when Michael had said, "We've decided to make some changes," Alyssa had asked, "What changes?" - and then listened. This is one form of jumping to conclusions - putting words into a speaker's mouth. It is one reason why we sometimes communicate so poorly with people we are closest to. Because we're so sure we know what they mean, we don't listen to what they actually say. Another way of jumping to conclusions is prematurely rejecting a speaker's ideas as boring or misguided. That would be a mistake. Let's say the announced topic is "Architecture and History." It sounds dull. So you tune out - and miss a fascinating discussion filled with human-interest stories about buildings and other structures from the ancient pyramids to the latest skyscrapers. Nearly every speech has something to offer you - whether it be information, point of view, or technique. You are cheating yourself if you prejudge and choose not to listen. ### Focusing On Delivery and Personal Appearance As new parents interested in finding a good day care for their young daughter, Abby and Noah were excited to attend an information session at a school close to their apartment. At 10:00 A.M. Saturday morning, they gathered in a classroom with 2 0 other parents to hear from the school's director. When the director entered the room in a wheelchair, Noah glanced quizzically at Abby. For the next 20 minutes, they listened as the director discussed the school's curriculum, activities, and opportunities for young children. "It sounds like a great school," Abby said when they got back to the car. But Noah seemed concerned. "What's wrong?" Abby asked. "I know you're going to think this is stupid," Noah began, "but I never pictured the director in a wheelchair. Now I can't get the idea out of my head. Would she really be able to handle a school full of energetic little kids?" This story illustrates a common problem. Sometimes we judge people by the way they look or speak and don't listen to what they say. It's easy to become distracted by a speaker's accent, personal appearance, or vocal mannerisms and lose sight of the message. Focusing on a speaker's delivery or personal appearance is one of the major sources of interference in the speech communication process, and it is something we always need to guard against. ## How To Become A Better Listener ### Take Listening Seriously The first step toward becoming a better listener is to accord listening the seriousness it deserves. Good listeners are not born that way. They have worked at learning how to listen effectively. Good listening does not go hand in hand with intelligence, education, or social standing. Like any other skill, it comes from practice and self-discipline. Check your current skills as a listener by completing the Listening Self-Evaluation Worksheet on page 52. Once you have identified your shortcomings as a listener, make a serious effort to overcome them. ### Be An Active Listener So many aspects of modern life encourage us to listen passively. We listen to Spotify while studying. Parents listen to their children while fixing dinner. Television reporters listen to a politician's speech while walking around the auditorium looking for their next interview. This type of passive listening is a habit - but so is active listening. Active listeners give their undivided attention to the speaker in a genuine effort to understand his or her point of view. In conversation, they do not interrupt the speaker or finish his or her sentences. When listening to a speech, they do not allow themselves to be distracted by internal or external interference, and they do not prejudge the speaker. They take listening seriously and do the best they can to stay focused on the speaker and his or her message. There are a number of steps you can take to improve your skills of active listening. They include resisting distractions, not allowing yourself to be diverted by a speaker's appearance or delivery, suspending judgment until you have heard the speaker out, focusing your listening, and developing note-taking skills. We'll discuss each of these in turn. ### Resist Distractions In an ideal world, we could eliminate all physical and mental distractions. In the real world, however, we cannot. Because we think so much faster than a speaker can talk, it's easy to let our attention wander. Sometimes it's very easy - when the room is too hot, when construction machinery is operating right outside the window, when the speaker is tedious. But our attention can stray even in the best of circumstances - if for no other reason than a failure to stay alert and make ourselves concentrate. Whenever you find this happening, make a conscious effort to pull your mind back to what the speaker is saying. Then force it to stay there. One way to do this is to think ahead of the speaker - try to anticipate what will come next. This is not the same as jumping to conclusions. When you jump to conclusions, you put words into the speaker's mouth and don't listen to what is said. In this case you will listen - and measure what the speaker says against what you had anticipated. Another way to keep your mind on a speech is to review mentally what the speaker has already said and make sure you understand it. Yet another is to listen between the lines and assess what a speaker implies verbally or says nonverbally with body language. Suppose a speaker is introducing someone to an audience. The speaker says, "It gives me great pleasure to present to you my very dear friend, Ashley Hauser." But the speaker doesn't shake hands with Ashley. He doesn't even look at her - just turns his back and leaves the podium. Is Ashley really his "very dear friend"? Probably not. Attentive listeners can pick up all kinds of clues to a speaker's real message. At first you may find it difficult to listen so intently. If you work at it, however, your concentration is bound to improve. ### Don't Be Diverted By Appearance Or Delivery If you had attended Abraham Lincoln's momentous Cooper Union speech of 1860, this is what you would have seen: The long, ungainly figure upon which hung clothes that, while new for this trip, were evidently the work of an unskilled tailor; the large feet and clumsy hands, of which, at the outset, at least, the orator seemed to be unduly conscious; the long, gaunt head, capped by a shock of hair that seemed not to have been thoroughly brushed out, made a picture which did not fit in with New York's conception of a finished statesman. Although he seemed awkward and uncultivated, Lincoln had a powerful message about the moral evils of slavery. Fortunately, the audience at Cooper Union did not let his appearance stand in the way of his words. Similarly, you must be willing to set aside preconceived judgments based on a person's looks or manner of speech. Gandhi was an unimpressive-looking man who often spoke dressed in a simple white cotton cloth. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking was severely disabled and could speak only with the aid of a voice synthesizer. Yet imagine how much poorer the world would be if no one had listened to them. Even though it may tax your tolerance, patience, and concentration, don't let negative feelings about a speaker's appearance or delivery keep you from listening to the message. On the other hand, try not to be misled if the speaker has an unusually attractive appearance. It's all too easy to assume that because someone is good-looking and has a polished delivery, he or she is speaking eloquently. Some of the most unscrupulous speakers in history have been handsome people with hypnotic delivery skills. Again, be sure you respond to the message, not to the package it comes in. ### Suspend Judgment Unless we listen only to people who think exactly as we do, we are going to hear things with which we disagree. When this happens, our natural inclination is to argue mentally with the speaker or to dismiss everything she or he says. But neither response is fair, and in both cases we blot out any chance of learning or being persuaded. Does this mean you must agree with everything you hear? Not at all. It means you should hear people out before reaching a final judgment. Try to understand their point of view. Listen to their ideas, examine their evidence, assess their reasoning. Then make up your mind. The aim of active listening is to set aside "one's own prejudices, frames of reference, and desires so as to experience as far as possible the speaker's world from the inside." It has been said more than once that a closed mind is an empty mind. ### Focus Your Listening As we have seen, skilled listeners do not try to absorb a speaker's every word. Rather, they focus on specific things in a speech. Here are three suggestions to help you focus your listening. #### Listen for Main Points Most speeches contain from two to four main points. Here, for example, are the main points of a speech by Glenn Gerstell, general counsel for the U.S. National Security Agency: * Cyber vulnerability is one of the biggest threats to the United States. * The nation is ill equipped to deal with this threat because responsibility for cyber protection is scattered across the federal government. * The federal government should centralize responsibility for cyber protection by creating a new department of cyber security. These three main points are the heart of Gerstell's message. As with any speech, they are the most important things to listen for. #### Listen for Evidence Identifying a speaker's main points, however, is not enough. You must also listen for supporting evidence. By themselves, Gerstell's main points are only assertions. You may be inclined to believe them just because they come from an important national security official. Yet a careful listener will be concerned about evidence no matter who is speaking. Had you been listening to Gerstell's speech, you would have heard him support his claims with a mass of verifiable evidence. Here is an except: There are 23 victims of malicious cyber activity per second, according to a 2016 report from Norton. The Center for Strategic and International Studies recently estimated that such activity costs our national economy $140 billion each year. By comparison, the Institute for Economics and Peace, which publishes a yearly Global Terrorism Index, estimated that the global economic impact of terrorism was about $90 billion in 2015.... The Chair of the SEC last year said that the gravest threat to the American financial system was cyber. The threat is so grave, in fact, that former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta described our nation's cybersecurity weaknesses as amounting to a pre-9/11 moment. There are four basic questions to ask about a speaker's evidence: * Is it accurate? * Is it taken from objective sources? * Is it relevant to the speaker's claims? * Is it sufficient to support the speaker's point? In Gerstell's case, the answer to each question is yes. His figures about cyber security threats are well established in research studies and can be verified by independent sources. The figures are clearly relevant to Gerstell's claim that cyber vulnerability is a serious threat to the United States, and they are sufficient to support that claim. If Gerstell's evidence were inaccurate, biased, irrelevant, or insufficient, you should be wary of accepting his claim. We shall discuss these - and other - tests of evidence in detail in Chapters 8 and 17. For now, it's enough to know that you should be on guard against unfounded assertions and sweeping generalizations. Keep an eye out for the speaker's evidence and for its accuracy, objectivity, relevance, and sufficiency. #### Listen for Technique We said earlier that you should not let a speaker's delivery distract you from the message, and this is true. However, if you want to become an effective speaker, you should study the methods other people use to speak effectively. Analyze the introduction: What methods does the speaker use to gain attention, to relate to the audience, to establish credibility and goodwill? Assess the organization of the speech: Is it clear and easy to follow? Can you pick out the speaker's main points? Can you follow when the speaker moves from one point to another? Study the speaker's language: Is it accurate, clear, vivid, appropriate? Does the speaker adapt well to the audience and occasion? Finally, diagnose the speaker's delivery: Is it fluent, dynamic, convincing? Does it strengthen or weaken the impact of the speaker's ideas? How well does the speaker use eye contact, gestures, and visual aids? As you listen, focus on the speaker's strengths and weaknesses. If the speaker is not effective, try to determine why. If he or she is effective, try to pick out techniques you can use in your own speeches. If you listen in this way, you will be surprised by how much you can learn about successful speaking. ### Develop Note-Taking Skills Speech students are often amazed at how easily their instructor can pick out a speaker's main points, evidence, and techniques. Of course, the instructor knows what to listen for and has had plenty of practice. But the next time you get an opportunity, watch your instructor during a speech. Chances are she or he will be listening with a laptop or pen and paper. When note taking is done properly, it is a surefire way to improve your concentration and keep track of a speaker's ideas. The key words here are _when done properly_. Unfortunately, many people don't take notes effectively. Some try to take down everything a speaker says. They view the enterprise as a race that pits their note-taking speed against the speaker's rate of speech. As the speaker starts to talk, the note taker starts to write or type. But soon the speaker is winning the race. In a desperate effort to keep up, the note taker tries to go faster and faster. But even this is not enough. The speaker pulls so far ahead that the note taker can never catch up. Some people go to the opposite extreme. They arrive armed with pen, laptop, and the best of intentions. They know they can't write down everything, so they wait for the speaker to say something that grabs their attention. Every once in a while the speaker rewards them with a joke, a dramatic story, or a startling fact. Then the note taker records a few words and leans back to await the next fascinating tidbit. By the end of the lecture, the note taker has a set of tidbits - and little or no record of the speaker's important ideas. As these examples illustrate, most inefficient note takers suffer from one or both of two problems: They don't know what to listen for, and they don't know how to record what they do listen for. 17 The solution to the first problem is to focus on a speaker's main points and evidence. But once you know what to listen for, you still need a sound method of note taking. Although there are a number of systems, most students find the key-word outline best for listening to classroom lectures and formal speeches. As its name suggests, this method briefly notes a speaker's main points and supporting evidence in rough outline form. Suppose a speaker says: The global shark population is in drastic decline… A key-word note taker would record something like this: Shark population in decline * 100 million die each year * 30 percent at risk of extinction * Among most endangered in world Three major causes: * Illegal fishing * Slow reproduction rate * Pollution & habitat destruction Notice how brief the notes are. Yet they accurately summarize the speaker's ideas. They are also very clear. By separating main points from subpoints and evidence, the outline format shows the relationships among the speaker's ideas. Perfecting this - or any other - system of note taking requires practice. But with a little effort you should see results soon. As you become a better note taker, you will become a better listener. There is also a good chance you will become a better student. Research confirms that students who take effective notes usually receive higher grades than those who do not. ## Summary Most people are poor listeners. Even when we think we are listening carefully, we usually grasp only half of what we hear, and we retain even less. Improving your listening skills can be helpful in every part of your life, including speechmaking. The most important cause of poor listening is giving in to distractions and letting our thoughts wander. Sometimes, however, we listen too hard. We try to remember every word a speaker says, and we lose the main message by concentrating on details. In other situations, we may jump to conclusions and prejudge a speaker without hearing out the message. Finally, we often judge people by their appearance or speaking manner instead of listening to what they say. You can overcome these poor listening habits by taking several steps. First, take listening seriously and commit yourself to becoming a better listener. Second, work at being an active listener. Give your undivided attention to the speaker in a genuine effort to understand her or his ideas. Third, resist distractions. Make a conscious effort to keep your mind on what the speaker is saying. Fourth, try not to be diverted by appearance or delivery. Set aside preconceived judgments based on a person's looks or manner of speech. Fifth, suspend judgment until you have heard the speaker's entire message. Sixth, focus your listening by paying attention to main points, to evidence, and to the speaker's techniques. Finally, develop your note-taking skills. When done properly, note taking is an excellent way to improve your concentration and to keep track of a speaker's ideas. ## Key Terms * hearing (44) * listening (46) * appreciative listening (47) * empathic listening (47) * comprehensive listening (47) * critical listening (47) * spare "brain time" (48) * active listening (51) * key-word outline (56) ## Review Questions After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions: 1. What is the difference between hearing and listening? 2. How is listening connected with critical thinking? 3. Why is it important to develop strong listening skills? 4. What are the four main causes of poor listening? 5. What are seven ways to become a better listener? ## Exercises For Critical Thinking 1. Which of the four causes of poor listening discussed in this chapter do you consider the most important? Choose a specific case of poor listening in which you were involved. Explain what went wrong. 2. Using the Listening Self-Evaluation Worksheet on page 52, undertake a candid evaluation of your major strengths and weaknesses as a listener. Explain what steps you need to take to become a better listener. 3. Watch the lead story this week on _60 Minutes_, _Dateline_, or _20/20_. Using the key-word outline method of note taking, record the main ideas of the story. 4. Choose a lecture in one of your other classes. Analyze what the lecturer does most effectively. Identify three things the lecturer could do better to help students keep track of the lecture. # The Art of Public Speaking ## Thirteenth Edition **Stephen E. Lucas** University of Wisconsin - Madison **With** **Paul Stob** Vanderbilt University