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If you don’t listen you won’t hear it. By @kylejforeman

Kyle Foreman

By Kyle Foreman

 

If you don’t listen you won’t hear it.

 

 

My partner Rollo and I were working on a brief with a mentor. It was all going well. Propositions were coming thick and fast, some bad, some not so bad. The conversation was flowing, we had loads of work to do but I was pleased with what was going on. Then it happened.

 

 “ What did he say? ” Asked the mentor.

 

I looked up to see my partner and the mentor looking at me. The conversation had stopped and a strange feeling rushed through my body (this being embarrassment.) As Rollo was talking an idea came to my head so I started writing it down. I replied with “ Ummm not sure, sorry.”

 

After the haze of silence passed, the mentor told me that half the work is done by just listening to your partner. This really hit home.

 

After our meeting I Googled the meaning of listening. It said “Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.”

 

We’re in the business of communication and if I’m not ready to hear something and interpret it into a message then what am I doing? I then went back to the Internet to look for answers. I came across active listening.

 

It might sound like a thing somebody with too much time would invent, just to make themselves feel more intelligent. But it’s not. Active listening is a technique that you have to practice. It’s like a muscle. To truly understand somebody’s point of view, you can’t judge, talk, or be in your head. You have to be present. In the moment.

 

If we all want to be successful in this industry we have to be able to understand other points of view to truly create great work.

 

Listening is like fishing, if your rods not in the water you won’t catch a fish…

 

 

 

 

 

 

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