CHAPTER 5

Listening
 Learning Objectives
• To understand the listening process and impacts of the
environment on your ability to listen and retain
information
• To understand the importance of effective listening in
personal, academic, business, & professional contexts
• To learn more about the effects of multitasking while
listening
• To understand the differences between deliberative
listening and listening to sustain or improve relationships
• To acquire strategies for improving your own listening
behaviours when listening to learn
 Learning Objectives
• To recognize barriers to effective listening in
interpersonal contexts: anticipating what the other
will say, advising and evaluating, listening defensively
and selectively, preparing counter arguments while
listening, interrupting, and listening for information
we can use later against the person
• To understand more about listening to sustain or
improve relationships
• To recognize the role of listening in cross-cultural
communication
 How Good Are Your
Listening and Recall Skills?

You will need a sheet of paper and pen or pencil for next activities. I’ll give
you a minute to get ready.

I want you listen carefully to the following grocery list of 15 items.

DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING as you listen.

Get ready to listen!

 How Good Are Your
Listening and Recall Skills?

Listen to the list a second time. Check your answers

against the list as I read it. Then calculate your scores
(how many items you were able to remember). You will
need the score later in the lecture.

Get ready!
The Nature of Listening
 The Nature of Listening

• Hearing and listening not the same

• Steps in the process of listening

Selecting: Cocktail Party Effect
 Understanding: Context

[Link]
Understanding: Inferences
Understanding: Cognitive Complexity
Remembering: Doodling
Responding: Verbal or Nonverbal
 Why Listening Matters
in Interpersonal Contexts
Listening fulfills a basic human need to connect
meaningfully with another person and to be heard.
 Why Listening Matters
In Crisis Situations

• Listening and help lines often help people in crisis or

those suffering from depression.

• Like other universities in Canada, the University of

Ottawa has services for students.

• A key component of all crisis lines is supportive

listening.
 Why Listening Matters
in Health Contexts

Supportive listening builds

trust among health care
providers, patients, and clients.
 What Happens When
Doctors Don’t Listen?
More lawsuits result. Wendy Levinson tape-recorded
routine patient visits to 120 primary care physicians.
Doctors with fewer than
two malpractice claims spent
18+ minutes with patients
compared to 15 minutes by
those with more lawsuits.
[Link]
patient-dies-robot-doctor/[Link]
 Why Listening Matters
in Educational Contexts

• Students with good listening skills do better in schools

and universities.
• Time spent on laptops is negatively related to student
learning and understanding of course content and
grades.
• The more time that is spent browsing the Internet
during class, the lower the final grades.
 Why Listening Matters
in Business Contexts

• Listening affects productivity in the workplace and

profits in the marketplace.
• Poor listening will cost a corporation with 100,000
employees $3 million each year if each of its
employees makes a $30 mistake (e.g., taking a wrong
number or wrong order).
 Why Listening Matters
in Business Contexts
• According to recent studies:
o 92 per cent of employees who rated their managers
as good listeners said they were satisfied with their
jobs.
o 58 per cent of managers rated as good listeners had
received listening training; 89 per cent of poor
listeners had no training.
o 58 per cent of the highly-rated listener group were
women, who used more nonverbal cues.
 How Do Managers View
their Listening Skills?

• Not the same as employees in one study:

o Virtually all managers perceived their own listening

skills as good or very good.

o Employees scored same managers as infrequently

demonstrating effective listening.
What Happens When
Leaders Don’t Listen
 Why Listening Matters
to Front Line Workers

Front line workers like waitresses also benefit financially

from good listening skills.
 Listening to Learn
vs. Listening in Relationships
• Listening to learn (called deliberative listening)
involves hearing, understanding, evaluating and
drawing conclusions, and storing information
for later recall.
• Listening to improve or sustain relationships
(empathic listening) involves hearing what the
person is saying at a content level (what the
words say) and at an emotional level (how the
speaker feels about the information).
 Listening to Learn

• Listening to learn happens in lecture halls with guest speakers,

listening to Podcasts, watching TV documentaries, or
attending training sessions for our workplace.
• Listening to learn takes place most
often in classrooms.
• Typical rates of recall after 10-min lecture:
50% immediately after the lecture
25% after 48 hours
2%-3% at end of 30-day month
 Barriers to Listening to Learn
• Interruptions and environmental distractions account for
many of the issues experienced in learning and work
environments.
• According to Torkel Klingberg, professor of cognitive
neuroscience at the Stockholm Brain Institute in Sweden,
people report being interrupted or distracted every three
minutes while at work.
• Using a computer analogy, he says that we have an
average of eight windows open at the same time—all of
which are dedicated to responding to these demands.
• The distractions can also be psychological, as discussed in
earlier chapters.
 Barriers to Listening: Multitasking

This is a variation on the listening exercise that you completed

earlier in the lecture. Again, you will need a sheet of paper and
pen or pencil.

In this exercise, you will be checking one of your social media

accounts (Instagram, Tic Toc, FB, Twitter, or other) while
listening to a grocery list of 15 items.

DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING as you listen.

 Multitasking

Listen to the list a second time.

Check your answers against the list as I read it.
Then tabulate and compare your score with the earlier
score when you were not multi-tasking.
 What Did this Exercise Teach You
(if anything) about Multitasking?
• Earlier we talked about studies that show the reduced learning
and lower grade averages for students who browsed the
Internet while listening to a class lecture.
• In another study, students compared two rotating objects
while listening to someone reading sentences aloud.
• The task engaged two different parts of the brain—one that
processed spoken information and one that processed visual
information.
• When multi-tasking, brain activation dropped by 53 per cent
with spoken and by 29 per cent with visual.
• Studies with hands-free cellphones while driving show similar
issues because you activating two different parts of the brain,
and the function of each decreases when that happens.
 Why Listening to Learn is Difficult
• Speech-thought differential – difference between rate at
which someone speaks and thought rate
• Information overload – how much other information was
coming to you while you were trying to listen to the list

• Distractions in the environment-happenings around you

(physically or psychologically)
 Strategies for Listening to Learn
• Sit near the front.
• Eliminate distractions.
• Pay attention.
• Take good notes.
• Review your notes.
• Be aware of
confirmation bias.
• Practice active listening.
 What are the Characteristics of Listening
to Sustain or Improve Relationships

Empathic listening
o Supportive and intuitive
o Accepting
o Sensing and feeling
with the other
o Non-evaluative and
non-directive
“How to Make Someone Remember You for a
Lifetime” discusses Oprah Winfrey’s special
abilities as a listener.
[Link]
 Examples that Demonstrate Lack of
Sensing and Feeling with the Other
Putting refugees from Central American countries into cages
 Examples that Demonstrate Lack of
Sensing and Feeling with the Other
Tossing toilet paper at hurricane victims in Puerto Rico
 Examples that Demonstrate Lack of
Sensing and Feeling with the Other

• Telling survivors at a Texas hurricane shelter to “have

a good time, everybody” (Donald Trump, 2018)
• Saying that workers, laid off during the US
government shutdown, will “make other
arrangements” (Donald Trump)
• Telling workers laid off by Covid to “find something
new” (Ivanka Trump)*
[Link]
 Barriers to Effective Listening
in Interpersonal Contexts
Often, we anticipate what the other person will
say before he/she speaks.

“Joe, we have a personnel problem in my group.

People don’t like the new rules. Everyone wants . .”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Everyone wants to a day off.
I’m fed up with their complaints.”
Anticipating - listening habits
 Barriers to Effective Listening
in Interpersonal Contexts
Advising is one of most common
responses to someone sharing a problem:
“I agree with you. It’s a problem. Now this is
what you need to. Figure out who’s behind all
the complaints and get rid of the person.”
Advising is all about your point of view
 Barriers to Effective Listening
in Interpersonal Contexts

Sometimes we listen defensively.

“I take that last comment personally. I’ve
done everything I can to make those workers
happy, and nothing makes a difference. I’ve
got a family too. Don’t you think I’d like to
have better working hours? They don’t
realize how much overtime I put into this
company.”
 Barriers to Effective Listening
in Interpersonal Contexts
Too often we listen selectively, hearing what we expect
to hear.

“I knew the issue of flex time was going to come up, and
my position hasn’t changed.”

“I didn’t mention flex time, Joe. I was talking about how the
workers feel about working on weekends and holidays.”

“Yeah? Well, I heard you say they weren’t happy with their
hours, and I just assumed . . . .”
 Barriers to Effective Listening
in Interpersonal Contexts
When discussing controversial topics, we may
prepare counter arguments while listening to
the person.
 Barriers to Effective Listening
in Interpersonal Contexts

Sometimes we listen for information that we

can use against the person at a later time.

“You were arguing for special concessions for the

kitchen staff last year. Now you want more
privileges for the receptionist. I’ve been noticing
there’s a pattern.”
 Strategies for Listening to
Sustain or Improve Relationships

• Limit your own talking.

• Use nonverbal cues to
show attention.
• Practise empathic listening.
• Paraphrase the content or
feelings in the message.

[Link]
eadlee_10_ways_to_have_a_better_
conversation?language=en
How to Paraphrase
 More Examples of
Paraphrasing Content

➢“This is what I think I heard you

saying…”
➢“You seem to be saying…”
➢“If I understand you correctly, you
are saying…”
 More Examples of
Paraphrasing Feelings

➢“You sound (upset, confused,

disrespected, etc.)”
➢“So you’re feeling…”
➢“It sounds as if you have some
doubts about whether…”
 If your colleague said. . .

“I don’t know what to think. Our sales

are down this month. The last newsletter
warned that, if things didn’t pick up
soon, the company might have to lay off
some workers. I had a chance to relocate
last year, and now I’m thinking that
maybe I should have taken the offer. . .”
 To paraphrase for content, you
might say . . .

“If I understand correctly, you’re having

second thoughts about turning down the
other job offer since your company might
need to lay off workers if things don’t
improve.”
 To paraphrase feelings, you
might say . . .

“It sounds like you’re really worried about

the possibility of losing your job if your
company isn’t able to turn things around. Is
that right?”
 Tips for Effective Listening
in Interpersonal Situations
• Try to enhance your cognitive complexity.
• Avoid checking your email or social media accounts during
challenging listening situations.
• Use words that explicitly acknowledge that you understand and
empathize with the speaker’s experience.
• Use nonverbal cues and vocal sounds to show you are listening.
• Summarize and paraphrase what the speaker has said.
• Ask questions.
• Actively think about what the speaker is saying.
• When appropriate, use silence to communicate.
• Adopt non-judgmental listening strategies such as perspective taking,
acceptance, compassion, and suspending your ego.
• Hold space for the other person.
Recognizing the Role of Listening
in Cross-Cultural Communication
 Recognizing Role of Listening
in Communicating across Cultures

• Remember the Schramm

diagram, which indicates that we
can communicate with another
person to the extent that we
have shared experiences.
• Twins who have been raised
together are likely to have the
largest overlapping fields of
experience.
• When we do not have a large
number of shared experiences,
listening becomes critical to
meaningful and effective (Photo: Shauna & Shannon Baker.
communications. [Link]. AdorableCanada)
 Recognizing Role of Listening
in Cross-Cultural Communication
• Your cultural background will cause you to encode your message
in ways favoured by your upbringing.
• The other person’s cultural background will affect how he or she
decodes what you say.
• Misunderstanding can creep in at every stage, leading to conflict
and sometimes serious consequences.
• To succeed in communicating across cultures, you need to put a
priority on listening.
• Indigenous cultures in North America have a long history of
oral traditions, where storytelling is the medium for transmitting
the history and values of the culture.
• Many indigenous peoples in Africa and other countries have
similar traditions, where elders retain the wisdom and the stories.
 Western and Asian Cultures
The Western The Asian
Speaking-Centred Focus Listening-Centred Focus
• Students are encouraged • It is more appropriate for
to air views, argue points, children to listen than talk
debate ideas and solve and for adults to value
problems verbally. harmony and getting along.
• Being eloquent–or at least • Being assertive, articulate
articulate–is rewarded and and eloquent can signal
seen as a sign of disrespect, selfishness and
intelligence. lack of humility.
• Speaking well is often • Listening helps people to
valued more than listening avoid confrontation and
well. conflict.