It Pays to Listen

Whether sitting in meetings or classes, we spend a good portion of our days listening. And yet we seem to forget the information as soon as we hear it. IAA’s Oral Communication Lecturer Edward Priola has put together five listening tips to help all of us become more effective listeners.

Did you know listeners have a huge advantage over speakers?  Studies show that you can listen more than twice as fast as anyone talks. No matter how fast they say it, you can keep up. To be a more effective listener, practice using the listening tips:

• Listen as an active exercise. Invest yourself.

Organize for success and minimize all would-be distractions. Shove cell phones, iPads, laptops and anything else that might beckon your attention, into their cases. Also, avoid sitting near windows, doors and the class/office clowns. Keep your eyes up, forward and focused on the speaker.

• Make listening fun. Turn it into a game and keep score.

Each time you sit down in a classroom or meeting, yank out a blank piece of paper and put “$100” on top of it. This will remind you of the monetary value of your effort during that very hour. The object is to attach a monetary value to each fact you remember. One idea might be worth $5, the next $10. Each time you learn something, subtract a value from the $100 at the top. Your goal will be to zero out at the end of the session. Then reward yourself with a treat, like an ice cream, if, and only if, you zero out.  Keep “rebooting” your brain. According to research, you can likely remember about seven items over the course of a minute. That is, unless you integrate the information immediately with other familiar knowledge. Even with a good night’s sleep, your attentions will likely start to melt down every few minutes if you don’t stay mentally engaged.

• Like a computer, you must keep “rebooting” your brain.

“Rebooting” strategies include: asking questions aloud or writing them down; repeating information to yourself as you take notes; restating, or paraphrasing, the information in your own words. Finally, summarizing the major points covered by the speaker so that you can recall them later is also an excellent strategy.

• Practice the art of “chunking.”

Start by asking yourself, “How would I eat an elephant?” The correct answer is: “One bite-sized ‘chunk’ at a time.” In practical terms, this means that you take a large body of information and slice it up into logical smaller bits so that you can better recall them later. For example, if someone were to give you a long ten-digit number and ask you to rapidly commit it to memory, you might find it difficult. However, you would have less difficulty if you were to break up the number into groups of three or four “chunks,” as you would any phone number.

Speakers may aid your chunking efforts when they provide verbal and nonverbal signals as they present major parts of information. For example, they might say, “our discussion will cover the beginning, middle and end of a process.” Or they might say there are “several important points to remember.”

• Don’t try to memorize by repetition.

You can repeat one poem a hundred times and remember it well, but that won’t help you remember a second poem. Instead, practice organizing information better. You do this by simply creating patterns or logical relationships among the facts that you desire to remember. You can use rhymes, acronyms or familiar memories to evoke the facts at a later time. These are called mnemonic aids.

For example, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” This simple verse has aided the memory of history students for generations. It cleanly rhymes the color blue with an historic event and a significant figure. Practicing memorization with pattern associations will substantially strengthen your capacity to organize and recover vital information. Making sure that your rapidly decaying short term memories are stored in your long-term (limitless) memory bank for easy retrieval is your objective.

Integrating these tips into your listening routine will help maximize information retention.