Feb
19
2009
by admin on February 19, 2009
Due to the harsh realities of the world and the undeniable necessity to have a mentally stable “human” in order to pass genes on from generation to generation, the evolution of a mind that can ward off negative emotion is one of the end results… There are five major factors that are working constantly to assure that our concept of self and our sense of reality stays in check and there is a sixth mechanism that helps to facilitate their usage during communication. Let’s discuss these first and then we can get into the practical mechanisms we can use to [...]
Feb
19
2009
by admin on February 19, 2009
Literally, the most difficult challenge in communication is in ACCURATELY representing and EXPLAINING the concept or feeling that you are currently experiencing. Without extensive analysis and research, the average person is completely unaware of how INACCURATELY they are communicating their thoughts. Thanks to evolved processes such as heuristics, metaphor and analogy, stereotypes and predictive categorization that occur during experiential and language processing, we are still able to make functional sense of each others communication. Suffice it to say though, that when you are describing a night out with the girls… The visual, auditory and somatic/kinesthetic representations that your mother is [...]
Feb
17
2009
by admin on February 17, 2009
Today we are going to finish our 4 part professional listening series by talking about quality listening habits that you can begin developing right away and we will look at skill preparation and development at the Macro and Micro levels. First let’s talk about developing quality listening habits. There is simply no silver bullet for doing this. Countless studies have shown that NOT using old habits atrophies the neural net that produces the habit and REPETITION develops new neural nets that create new habits. So the first step is to bring cognition back into the picture. We have already talked [...]
Feb
17
2009
by admin on February 17, 2009
In revisiting part 1 of our series, effective listening is really about gathering information and the trick is in focusing your attention in a way to acquire the appropriate information. So what is the appropriate information? To help focus your mind let’s define “appropriate information” as whatever information will help advance your own interests in the communication. To think this way, you will need to: [amprotect=2, 3] First define what your interests are in a particular communication. Second determine what types of information can help you to advance in it. If you don’t do this your primitive, subconscious mind will [...]
Feb
17
2009
by admin on February 17, 2009
As we determined in the previous post, when we reduce “listening” down to its purest form, it is the process of gathering information. A communicator truly becomes an effective listener a communicator when they begin to: CONSCIOUSLY determine for what purpose the information is being gathered, AND CONSCIOUSLY determine what information specifically is to be gathered that can help to further that purpose. Before going any further though, I want to acknowledge and address the difference between EXTERNAL and INTERNAL listening. [amprotect=2, 3] Internal listening is the mental processes that someone uses while communicating to receive, process and internalize the [...]
Feb
17
2009
by admin on February 17, 2009
The true functionality of “listening” to someone really is an elusive concept. When I talk about listening, you most likely think of hearing someone talk… Although this is a PART of the overall equation, it ISN’T THE equation. Webster’s online defines listening as “to hear something with thoughtful attention: give consideration.” This definition is pretty good, but where the proverbial rubber meets that road is in the term “thoughtful attention”. What I mean to bring to light here is the consideration of what “thoughtful attention” means exactly. Now as you can see from my previous posts, there are A LOT [...]
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