Help Others Listen More Effectively

Most people think they’re good listeners, but we all move between different levels of listening depending on the situation. When facilitating a session on communication or working relationships, use the Listening Gauge to help participants recognise what their listening looks like in practice. Walk through the five levels — ignoring, pretending to listen, selective listening, attentive listening and open listening — and ask the group for examples of each. Then invite participants to think about a conversation where they tend to slip into a lower level. What distracts them? What might help them stay curious, suspend judgement and listen without planning their next response? You can follow this with a paired activity: one person shares a situation they’re working through while the other asks only five open “what” questions, without giving advice or interrupting.