Listening

Effective communication depends on effective listening. While most people can hear, listening is often an underappreciated skill. When two parties interact, each shows the other interest and respect through listening and constructive feedback. This is crucial for success in helping solve problems and satisfying stakeholder needs and concerns.

When communicating nuclear-related issues, it is important to remember that nuclear professionals are likely to understand a lot more about it than their audiences. Deep knowledge of a subject means that communicators need to tailor their messages to new audiences. Finding messages that answer the right questions for each audience is when active listening matters most.

Active listening can be achieved in many ways:

• Stop talking and give the other person opportunities to speak.
• Listen openly to the other person.
• Remove distractions.
• Be receptive to the other person. Demonstrate that you are prepared to listen and accept what they are saying (without automatically agreeing with it). Non-verbal cues can be particularly important here, e.g. maintaining an open posture, appropriate/comfortable eye-contact, leaning slightly forward.
• Delay evaluation of what you have heard until you fully understand it.
• Stay positive and relaxed. Criticism can lead to defensiveness, but it is important to avoid signs of tension and impatience which can escalate a negative interaction.
• Maintain attention. Respond through your own facial expressions or body gestures such as a nod or a smile without interrupting the other person’s flow. This indicates that you are listening, interested and seeking to understand what they are saying and feeling (again, using attending skills). Be patient.
• Ask the other person for as much detail as he/she can provide. Reflect back or paraphrase what the other is saying to make sure you understand it. Paraphrase by asking short non-interrogative questions, using some of what the speaker has said to check your understanding; such as ‘so your main concern is…’ or ‘So what you are saying is…’.
• Evaluate what is being said after the person speaking has completed their statement. Avoid “jumping to conclusions” or hearing what you want to hear.
• Be aware of how someone’s point of view differs from your own.
• Listen to questions. This is especially important when possible responses have been prepared in advance and rehearsed.

Common barriers interfere with listening. Often people become inattentive to what is being said because they are thinking about something else entirely whilst other people are speaking. Different pronunciations and accents may also be distractions, as people listen to cultural cues instead of the content of their messages. Subjective biases of an individual’s appearance, level of understanding or community situation also contribute prejudices that can inhibit listening. In these situations, early judgements lead to conclusions that what the person has to say is not valuable. Feelings of anxiousness and self-consciousness may limit effective listening. In other instances, excessive and incessant talking or interrupting may reduce opportunities to listen by limiting the responses themselves.

Giving such feedback, especially phrasing it as a question, can be crucial in checking that you understand the other person correctly. Questions can reveal underlying assumptions or misinformation. The answers to these questions are opportunities to correct any misinterpretation.

In summary, listen for message content, but also listen for feelings.  The latter tends to be communicated via non-verbal clues such as tone of voice, facial expression, etc. Feelings can be reflected (e.g.  ‘You seem really worried about this?’  or ‘You seem to be feeling frustrated or annoyed. Is that the case?’). Offering feedback enables any corrections of misinterpretations to be made.

• Ask appropriate questions, such as asking the other for their views or suggestions to broaden your understanding of their position.
• If possible and appropriate, particularly in meetings, take notes.
• Decide on a specific follow-up action and date.