Why Do People Want to Listen?
Everyone I know wants to be listened to when they speak. And everyone SAYS that listening is an important thing to do and there is way too little of it going on these days. As a facilitator of Wisdom Circles, I am very interested in this topic -- especially since there is no storytelling without story listening.
And so... I polled a whole bunch of people and asked them what motivates them to listen to another person. 79 people responded. On a scale of 1-5 (with "5" being the highest rating), here are their reasons for listening:
WHAT MOTIVATES ME TO LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE
4.51 -- Reduce misunderstanding
4.44 -- Improve my personal relationships
4.41 -- See through other's eyes
4.40 -- Get to the heart of the matter
4.39 -- Tune into what people are really saying
4.31 -- Deepen my connection to others
4.31 -- Feel more empathy for others
4.25 -- Understand people better
4.22 -- Help people feel better about themselves
4.19 -- Experience more empathy with others
4.17 -- Solve problems faster
4.16 -- Learn about new things
4.14 -- Improve my ability to collaborate
4.09 -- Gain peoples' trust
4.05 -- AVERAGE FOR ALL QUESTIONS
4.00 -- Get different perspectives
3.89 -- Connect to the world around me
3.85 -- Spark new ideas and possibilities
3.82 -- Become a better person
3.80 -- Improve the quality of my life
3.79 -- Inspire people to tell their stories
3.64 -- Increase the likelihood of people listening to me
3.60 -- Improve my business relationships
2.97 -- Improve my social life
How about you? Why do you listen? And what, if anything, can you do to become a better listener?
Want to take the poll?
Idea Champions is in the process of creating a new workshop on listening. The content and design of the workshop will be very much informed by the above results and our own fascination for the topic. If you want to be informed when our workshop is ready, email info@ideachampions.com with the words LISTENING WORKSHOP in the subject heading.
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