Outlisten ‘Em
slogans save
it’s not just the professionals, we all need help practicing talking less and listening more.
One of the exercises we teach in 3practice Circles is learning how to outlisten people.
Outlistening involves learning how to not talk, especially when you have the right to or expectation of being deferred to.
“Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.” David Augsburger
People fall in love or at least fall in like when they’re listened to. And when people like each other the rules change
I’ll bet you have a story of that happening to you.
In 3 Practice Circles we practice not talking by through the imposition of time bound conversational structures.
We disconnect listening it from its typical association with inspiration and aspiration and instead operationalize it.
We mystify people, by requiring them to practice suspending judgement for a minute or two.
And by limiting how long they can talk to two minutes forcing them to have to stop talking.
Check out an upcoming circle
The first responsibility of someone providing leadership service is to listen. The second responsibility is to triage the voices. The majority, most passionate, or loudest voice is not always the one that will help fulfill the mission, advance the vision, honor the values, and steward the resources of the group they are leading. Listening to the people and the Voice of One is important. Pooled ignorance can be detrimental.