Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Noise and effective listening

One of the concepts from the assigned reading that definitely caught my attention was the one on page 17 of chapter one called noise. It states that " ...something that interferes with understanding the message". It can be either internal or external distractions. What they're referring to is something that happens to me all too often. I am either engaged in a discussion or listening to a monologue when my mind tends to wander. I'm finding that the older I get, the more stuff I have to try and keep track of. This seems to be OK most of the time. I used to think it was just me. But, as I found out, it's not.

   Chapter three discusses listening effectively. This can sometimes be more important than speaking effectively. I have had many conversations with people that when they stop talking, I have no idea what they said. What's worse is when they expect me to respond to what was obviously a question at the end of their statement. This has always been an awkward moment for me.We have two ears and one mouth for a reason. We should listen twice as much as we speak. Chapter three mentions that the brain can process information 3 times faster than someone can talk. This made me feel a little better. Not sure they were talking about my brain though. My goal in this class will be to work on my effective listening abilities.

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