40+FAB Blog
The art of listening
It is one of the seemingly easy things to do, but the problem is we all have an opinion that we are strongly attached to and willing to defend at all costs. This is characterised by our listening to respond rather than listening to understand another’s perspective.
I recently saw a work of art that looked spherical, but it had so many facets that from one angles it looked like a cube, and from another angle, it looked like a star. If I only had one view of the object I could have concluded it was a sphere and I would have argued with the person that saw it as a star.
As it is usually said, there are two sides to every story just like a coin. But in reality there is an awkward side to a coin which is not the head or the tail, but the body around them both.
The next time you are tempted to trample on someone else’s perspective before you have truly listened to them, remind yourself that there are many ways each individual would look at the same thing, then take time to understand the other person, you might just walk away from the conversation wiser than you think.