Enterprise Design Patterns | Behavioural Patterns
#15: Listening to Understand
"Listening is wanting to hear."
- Naomi Stanford
Related Patterns:
#3: Coalition Building, #13: Nurtured Trust, #14: Powerful Questions
You need to explore the full wisdom of other people to co-create great enterprises.
In this context:
Enterprise Designers are often so focused on their analysis and design activities they forget to really listen to the people they interact with. As a result, their creations are often neither reflecting the business reality accurately enough nor the bigger picture into which they ought to fit. This can lead to a significant misalignment of proposed solutions with the problems they are meant to solve: either the wrong problems are being solved, or the right problems are being solved incorrectly or incompletely.
Therefore:
You are aware that successful communication between people always starts with excellent listening skills. To get the in-depth information you need, you become a skilled listener by practicing some simple rules. You:
- Listen to understand and help, not to comment or find fault;
- Listen to the content, meaning, and feeling in what the other person is saying;
- Listen as much to understand why they are saying things as to understand what they say;
- Postpone your judgement about what you are hearing;
- Paraphrase from time to time;
- Pay attention to what the other person is not saying;
- Refrain from letting your desire to offer a specific solution for the problem get in the way of hearing the entire message.
Consequently:
Becoming a great listener helps you gain knowledge of the bigger picture of the enterprise. Your creations will increase significantly in depth and accuracy. You are also building better relations of trust with co-creators and thus the coalitions you need for your work.