{"id":50,"date":"2022-11-07T12:05:15","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T12:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/?p=50"},"modified":"2023-05-15T11:16:57","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T10:16:57","slug":"how-are-we-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/changing-ourselves\/2022\/11\/07\/how-are-we-listening\/","title":{"rendered":"How are we listening?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I want to propose a daft idea. Next time you\u2019re having a meeting that gets through its scheduled business ten minutes early, don\u2019t say: \u201cGreat, we can all have ten minutes back in our calendars.\u201d (Everyone cheers).\u00a0 Instead, say: \u201cWe\u2019ve got ten minutes left, what else is on your minds?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then shut up and listen. There\u2019s a large body of research that shows teams and organisations where people feel free to speak up, share ideas, challenge the existing wisdom, are the most successful. So if that\u2019s what happens in your liberated ten minutes, fantastic. If you\u2019re listening to deafening silence, ask yourself why that is, and what you might be losing as a consequence. Perhaps it\u2019s so out of the ordinary, nobody knows where to start. Maybe everyone is so pressed for time they can\u2019t even face ten minutes of freeform conversation without getting anxious about the unfinished to do list. There may be teams (not yours, obviously) where people are scared they\u2019ll get criticised, patronised or ignored. (Actually let\u2019s call those groups, because they\u2019re not operating as a team.)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To make these open conversations more likely, here are some things to try:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n