The Listening Shift

In organizations, it’s a miracle our conversations get us anywhere at all – we are constantly distracted by goals, consumed by the draw of emails, multi-tasking in everything that we do. We rush from meeting to meeting, from call to call. We don’t take breaks and we work on the move. Even our downtime is stimulated – videos, social media, noise.

We spend about 80% of our day involved in communicating and at least half of that should be listening and yet only 2% of people have ever had any formal training in how to listen.

This book supports leaders by showing them how to cut through the noise and listen expertly. It is a constructive toolkit for raising the game in communication with strategies, tools and techniques to implement with confidence. Discover:

·      How to find out how people are feeling.

·      How to set up different modalities of listening in your business.

·      How to determine what kind of listener you want to be.

·      How to implement practical tools – using short, medium and longer-term strategies.

·      How to help others listen to you more fully.

In a world of remote working, where we need to acknowledge different and minority voices, and where leaders are juggling uncertainty with so many challenges to solve, expertise in listening and communicating in a way that supports listening are more important than ever. The Listening Shift provides the tools you need to create a listening environment where colleagues feel heard and acknowledged, and yet they understand clearly how to move forward.

Table of Contents

Foreword:

A high-profile business leader – currently to be agreed, but potential names include Dame Carolyn McCall, Richard Hytner and the new CEO (to be confirmed) of Samaritans, among others.

Prologue:

My journey as a listener…how it’s been shaped in the worlds of theatre, business and charity volunteering and what that insight offers to leaders.

Note to Reader:

How to ‘listen’ to this book (there will be suggested recordings to start each chapter as a ‘setting the scene’ listening exercise)

Chapters:

1.      Get Your Shift Together – Why Listen?

-        What’s the problem?

-        The business of listening (environmental factors)

-        What’s possible if you make the shift?

-        What’s the process needed to achieve results

2.      Shift work - How to Listen to Your Organisation

-        The Listening Audit

-        Listening Modalities

-        Running listening meetings

-        Managing Your Presentations

-        Listening virtually

3.      ‘You’ve got shift to do!’ - How to Listen to Your People

-        Managing your impact as a listener

-        Setting your intention

-        Empathy mapping

-        A listening methodology to live by

-        Inclusion and the big conversations

-        Timed reviews – how to keep getting better

4.      Give a Shift - Helping Your Listeners Listen to you

-        The music of talking (Voice, language and metaphor)

-        Learning to dance (proxemics, body language and what happens online)

-        How to structure your communication for easy listening

-        The story behind the story – emotional engagement and why it matters

-        Timing

5.      Shift Happens– What to Expect

-        How to communicate with discipline and practice

-        Connecting and disconnecting rituals

-         Dealing with what you hear

-        A vision for the future

End Matter:

Further resources – workshops, coaching support, listening audit.