It’s absolutely true, listening is an art. And sadly, it has become a lost art. Few actually do it well. It would seem to be a pretty simple concept, but there are several deterrents that get in the way.
Many of us are guilty of starting a conversation and putting a thought or question out there. Instead of giving the other individual time to formulate a response, we immediately re-phrase the question or remark and answer it ourselves. In other words, we don’t give ourselves a chance to listen since we never stop talking.
The second reason is that even when we stop and wait for a response from the other person, we often don’t hear, or worse, comprehend, what they say because we are so busy formulating our reply to what we assume they will say. We want to be perceived as quick witted and always prepared with a snappy comeback to any question or comment. The problem with all of this is that we are missing so much vital and crucial information.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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