Do you have the capacity to listen, really listen to what another person is trying to communicate to you?
In today’s context, we seem to be obsessed in making our point, driving it home for a victory. Rather than listening to a response from someone who has been listening to us, we are rapidly forming our retort, a counter to what the other is saying rather than leaning into what the other is saying. If one views the encounter as an adversarial field of play, this defense makes good sense. However, if we are hoping for the sharing of differing perspectives with the result being a better mutual understanding, we need to approach the encounter with a measure of humility. What can I learn from this “other” person? What value may come if I truly listen with humility?
This is the third in a series of articles on Creative Interchange that I am writing in response to our current state of affairs in our country, but its application is timeless and global. Creative Interchange is a process conceptualized by Henry Nelson Wieman who believed that we were wired to “relate” to one another in order to learn from the experience of other creatures with whom we share this Creation. Wieman believed that we were endowed by this spiritual gift, but we are hampered by a society that tries to socialize us to conformity, robbing us of our original Creative Self. Additionally, we fear that, in sharing our authentic self with others, we may lose our worth, status, and power. Wieman proposes a process that is as natural as breathing.
Last week, I dove into the first step in Creative Interchange as authentically sharing one’s experience with an “other’. Sounds simple but the reality is that this is a sub-version of the normal banter and chatter that fills our day. Rather, we are to be real, moving beneath our social roles, our familiar “masks” that we wear in our work and life, and to respond truly out of our core self.
The second phase is to listen to the “other” as she/he attempts to be authentic in their communication. I am purposefully going to try to keep this short and sweet.
A Mindset, and Three Tactics.
The mindset is that the other has things to give to you. You have your experience but do NOT have a corner on the Truth. It is the starting point for Creative Interchange. If you don’t get that your perception of reality is missing angles, dimensions, nuance that you simple can’t get, then get a Jeep, fill it up with gas, and head for the deepest part of the desert near you, for you have nothing to learn. But, if you recognize that your cognition of reality is partial, this other human being has something to offer to you: her/his experience. If you get that, you will begin to lean into conversations in a fresh way, not waiting for them to stop talking so that you can add your wisdom to the boiling pot of knowledge. This mindset is a game-change moment in that you suddenly realize that the “Other”, whoever that happens to be, offers you a fresh perspective on the question of “what’s going on?”. It changes the gig. You will begin to lean into the conversation, the dialogue. the exchange to really listen to the experience and perspective of the other.
As a humble listener, you are open to understanding what the point of view of the other is, rather than taking on an adversarial position to prove them wrong. You will, as my patron saint Francis, urge “Seek first to understand.” That wisdom was later picked up by Covey who industrialized the spiritual concept. But the truth is, it works. Whether or not you buy into or commit to this spiritual truth, most folks by midlife get it: you need to listen to what the other is saying. Every person has something to contribute to your consciousness by sharing their unique experience and perspective on life.
I had an early baptism into this mindset when I worked at a local country club golf course during the summers when I was in high school. My job was in the golf pro shop working for a man curiously named Darwin White, but he had a nickname… “Drag”. He was a nice guy, had a bit of a loopy swing, but he seemed to care about me as a person and as a developing golfer. I would sometimes work in the shop, but a good deal of my time was spent down on the driving range, picking up golf balls by driving an old Ford tractor with an attachment that would grab the golf balls, throw them into a basket, ready to be placed in the machine that precisely provided ball for the practicing golfers. I also had the grueling job of driving our Harley Davidson golf carts to a maintenance shed where I filled them with the oil/gas mixture. Those chores pretty much took up my summer days, and I loved it. It did afford me a chance to practice regularly down on the range, hitting 200-300 balls a day. But that was not the game-changing moment for me.
The transformation of my perspective took place in the caddy shack. It was actually a room just off the place where carts were parked. There were a dozen or so black men who worked there as caddies, carrying the golf clubs of men and women who preferred to walk rather than riding in those noisy, smoke-bellowing carts. Each of those men were a story in and of themselves, coming from a variety of backgrounds and conditions. The caddy shack was where I first discovered my native curiosity and my gift of opening people up with the right question perfectly framed. Many of the men were veterans, having served in Korea and Vietnam. As a naive white boy from the Southside of Atlanta, I was pretty green and ignorant about “the world” but I could listen in and hear them talk of a life of which I was unaware. And I was fascinated. Every bit of free time I had, I would go to the caddy shack, as they would allow me into their horizon of meaning. I see their faces, dark, craggy, expressive as I am writing this today.
But there was one man in particular, the caddie master, who is in charge of the caddie shack, Scievan Stanley. Scievan was younger than the rest, came straight out of the Marine Corp, and exuded a sharpness that seemed drilled into him. Muscular like a prize fighter, he would move those heavy golf bags like they were feathers on the wind. Scievan took a liking to me, as we say in the South. When the caddies were out of the course, we would sit and talk. He had grown up in the racially prejudiced south Georgia, experiencing poverty and discrimination. But the Marines offered him a way out of that mire, and he took the opportunity. He had dreams of going to night school at Georgia State, wanting to make a better life for his family. He was a good man, and was well-regarded by the staff at the golf club, the members, and me.
It was as if I had an Aristotle/Socrates in black for me to mine. I recognized his wisdom about human nature, life, the purpose of life, and the pathos connected. I would sit at his feet and listen, attend to what he was saying, how he was saying it. Before I took off to Emory to sit with scholars, the caddie shack was where I learned the best lesson of all: Every person can be your teacher. You can learn from anyone if you will only begin with a mindset of valuing the Other, listen carefully with an attitude of receptivity, ask questions that broaden and deepen the field, and then make sure that you “get” what the Other saying.
I seriously think that those three summers were foundational to how I have approached life. As I write this day on humble listening, my heart is filled with gratitude for St. Scieven.
So, that’s the mindset for humble listening. Anyone that you encounter can be the opportunity to expanding your perspective and consciousness. Humbly being present, leaning in, and listening is the key to the process. I promised you some tactics.
The most important skill in listening in order to truly understand is to make sure that what you heard is actually what the Other was trying to communicate to you. This is called confirmed paraphrasing. Coming off the work of psychologist, Carl Rogers, counselors and therapists were taught this technique. It was ubiquitous to the point that it became a running joke for someone to say “what I hear you saying is….”. Regardless as to the trite simplification, it gets at the heart of the matter. The best way to see if you “got it”, that is, received the message the Other is attempting to deliver is to check it out with the source.
After listening carefully to the Other, you offer back what you heard them saying in order to confirm that you indeed “heard” the Other. It’s great exercise as you are focusing on what they are saying, making sure that you are indeed “getting it” rather that preparing for your own response. You can “feel” the humility built into this approach. After you intentionally practice this method for a while, it becomes second nature and feel less contrived or mechanistic.
After the confirmed paraphrasing, you can use two additional techniques of inquiry to get closer to the bone of what the Other is expressing. One is the tactic of clarification, Even though you have confirmed the message that was being sent by the Other, there may be a few questions of clarification that may help you to understand more, making some connections that weren’t quite clear. The key here is that you are still in the Franciscan business of “seeking first to understand”. This takes patience and practice, but the yield is usually amazing. The side benefit is that the Other can’t help but to see that you are approaching them with value: you value the perspective and insight of the other. This is the “grease” that allows for the interchange to move more deeply because the level of trust is growing.
The third tactic is a bit more tricky and may be problematic. It is what I call probing inquiry. After being clear that one understood the Other, an opportunity to “dive deep” into what the Other is saying is there. I have tended to be aggressive in my use of probing questions, mostly out of my native curiosity. I enjoy going deep and so a question that appear provocative can become an avenue for revelation of a deeper reality within the person. I am slow to ask such probing questions early on before trust is established, with the Other knowing that I have their best interests in mind. Asking a probing question must be used judiciously and with discernment, but the results can be amazing as the person finds an opportunity to express feelings and experiences that are buried deep within their soul.
There it is, the second phase in the process of Creative Interchange. After you have shared authentically from where you are, you then carefully listen to what the Other has to say. Again the key is humility. Do you really think that this other person has something of value to share with you? If you do, you will approach the Other with a humble mindset, ready and willing to receive this precious gift that is coming your way.
Next week, I’ll be writing about the creative synthesis that can occur after people have shared authentically and listened humbly. Something that seems almost magical can occur and transformation seems possible.