Listen Up by Madelyn Burley

Hello, can you summarize these three points? The following descriptions of the three levels will help you understand the distinction betweenhow each level is expressed:Level 1.A person at Level 1 demonstrates the characteristics of a good listener. Theselisteners look for an area of interest in the talker’s message; they view it as an opportunity togather new and useful information. Effective listeners are aware of their personal biases, theirattitudes, are better able to avoid making automatic judgments about the talker and to avoidbeing influenced by emotionally charged words. Good listeners suspend judgment and areempathetic to the other person’s feelings. They can see things from the other person’s pointof view and inquire about rather than advocate a position. This listening behavior allows themto tap into their higher creative intelligence.Level 1 listeners use extra thought time to anticipate the talker’s next statement, to mentallysummarize the stated message, question or evaluate what was said, and to consciously noticenonverbal cues. Their overall focus is to listen with understanding and respect. In theexample at the beginning of this article, Dave did an excellent job responding to Bill at Level1. Read the brief scenario again with the description of Level 1 in mind and you will see howDave illustrates these characteristics.Level 2.At this level, a person is mainly listening to words and the content of what is beingsaid, but does not fully understand what the words mean. This results in the semantic barrier—the meaning of words. There are thousands of words in the English vocabulary. Theaverage adult in the United States uses 500 of these words most often. However, each one ofthese words has between 20 and 25 meanings. This means that we are using 500 words withthe possibility of 12,500 different meanings. Adding to the confusion is the variety of slangAmericans use, double meanings of many words, and on and on.The important factor in all of this is that words don’t communicate. It’s the meaning and theunderstanding of words that make communication work. For instance, Level 2 listeners arezeroing in on words, but many times, they miss the intent, such as what is being expressed nonverbally through tone of voice, body posture, gestures, facial expression and eyemovement.As a result, Level 2 listeners hear what the speaker says but make little effort to understandthe speaker’s intent. Needless to say, this can lead to misunderstanding, incorrect actions,loss of time and a variety of negative feelings. In addition, since the listener appears to belistening by nodding his head in agreement and not asking clarifying questions, the talkermay be lulled into a false sense of being listened to and understood.Level 3.At this level, people are tuning out the speaker, daydreaming, forming rebuttals oradvice internally, faking attention while thinking about unrelated matters, and are moreinterested in talking than in listening. When this Level 3 is activated it causes relationshipbreakdowns, conflicts and poor decision making because the person is busy finding fault,being judgmental and closed off to what is being said that they disagree with, respondingdefensively, or becoming overly emotional. All of this influences either the talker or thelistener to move into the flight-or-fight mode.As you examine these three levels, you can imagine how different groups and individualswould work together based on which level they are activating. Take a moment to think backto your experiences when working with different individuals and groups. What made theexperience positive? What was the energy like? What got accomplished? How were decisionsmade and problems resolved? Effective listening at Level 1 plays a major factor in making theexperience positive.It’s important to understand that these three levels are happening all the time—not just whenyou are listening. When is the last time you read a book and got to the bottom of the pageand didn’t remember anything of what you read? Level 3 reading. How many memos are readat Level 3? When is the last time you read something, understood it, remembered it andactually could apply what you read? Level 1.About 20 percent of the work population are spending most of their time at Level 1, and theother 80 percent are vacillating between Levels 2 and 3, and occasionally, Level 1.