By: Yadi Caro
This week I was working with my team and we had some minor conflict in terms of communications. I stated for what I thought was the 5th time what we had planned, but then my team member said 'That's not what you said earlier!'
I was extremely self-conscious about my abilities to communicate clearly.
Then I also realized, we all suck at some point at listening and stating what we are thinking.
This is why:
We can listen to 400 words per minute
But the speaker can say between 125 and 150 words per minute.
So what happens in between?
The listener thinks faster than the speaker thinks. We are filling in the gaps either thinking something else, or start creating our own conclusions.
In the meantime:
We think at 900 words per minute,
We can only speak at between 125-175 words per minute
So what is the result?
For any given thought, we can only get about one third of what we are thinking.
This is why practicing our skill of listening is essential.
One thing I’ve learned and applied based on what therapists use is reflective listening.
Simply listen, pause, repeat back what was stated. A simple exercise that has saved me a lot of trouble.
It's not easy, but like any skill, we need to practice to master it.
You can learn more about this topic in this podcast episode.
