Applying Active and Effective Listening

Listening is an attribute that, everyone agrees, is important, yet few people, including project managers, actually practice it. The following saying summarizes the importance of listening: "God gave so much importance to listening over talking that He gave people two ears and only one mouth."

Project Management Information System (PMIS) Contributions

A PMIS can make significant contributions to active and effective listening. One major contribution is that it provides data and information for corroboration of what project managers hear and listen from others; the perception of others may differ from what the content in a PMIS reveals. Another major contribution is that it provides background material for asking questions when listening.

Active and Effective Listening

Two closely related sets of listening skills exist: active and effective. Active listening occurs when the listener attempts to understand as clearly as possible what the speaker says. Effective listening is attempting to understand the perspective of the speaker and empathize, not sympathize, with him or her.

Project managers must exercise both skills because they have to interact and communicate with many stakeholders. Both skills enable project managers to understand the interests of each stakeholder and how to align those interests to achieve the goals and objectives of their projects.

Two Important Reasons

The reality is that project managers must be active and effective listeners simultaneously for two very important reasons.

First, they deal with many issues. They are the only "linchpin" on a project and must deal with multidisciplinary issues and problems. Being a linchpin requires involvement with people from many different fields and getting them, on many occasions, to work together to solve problems and achieve the goals of a project. Active and effective listening enables project managers to understand the perspectives and needs of these disciplines.

Second, they deal with many stakeholders with varying backgrounds. Each stakeholder has a different interest in the outcome of a project and views it from his own perspective. This circumstance allows conflict to occur any time during the project life cycle. If a project manager fails to listen actively and effectively, he or she may face conflict, producing negative effects.

For purposes set forth here, active and effective listening are combined and subsumed under listening. Combining both makes good sense for one reason: a project manager really cannot divorce one from the other. To effectively listen, he must listen actively. To listen actively, he must listen effectively. Although both are distinct conceptually in their implementation it is virtually impossible to separate one from the other.

For example, project managers frequently have to find the source of a problem or issue. Often, the source is not obvious. It requires asking questions and clarifying what is said to understand the cause. People frequently see circumstances and even causes from different vantage points. By combining active and effective listening, project managers can gain a good understanding of the real cause behind a problem.

Why Few People Listen Effectively

Listening sometimes does not come easy. Often, the difficulty is not because people are not willing to listen but because they are unable to do so. Their mind does not allow them to see the total picture because they are only able to see the world in one dimension. This inability to listen using both sides of the brain can cause miscommunication, misinterpretation, and miscalculation. The result can be a listener who is unable to deal with not only the logic of a relationship but with the emotional component either. Hence, this asymmetrical use of the brain often results in the inability of the listener to absorb all the necessary cues from the person speaking. Effective and active listening requires, therefore, using both sides of the brain. Unfortunately, few people understand this fact. Instead, they see this skill as one reflecting the use of the right or left side of the brain.

The left side of the brain emphasizes facts, logical thinking and reasoning, organization, and discipline and precision in thought. It is highly goal and analysis oriented. Effective and active listening solely from this perspective can result in overlooking the importance of the emotional message of the speaker; for example, the emphasis on calculating metrics is a left-brain activity. Focusing on schedule and cost performance indices as a measure of success is a prime example of left-brain thinking.

The right side of the brain emphasizes emotions and sensory perception. Imaging and imagining are two salient activities of this side of the brain. The emphasis is on nonverbal communications and spontaneous behavior. Effective and active listening from this perspective can result in ignoring important facts and data, and being influenced by the speaker. The emphasis on teaming, esprit de corps, and creativity are three examples of right-brain thinking. Less emphasis is on facts, data, and logic, and more on the people side of project management.

Taking a holistic approach towards listening requires considerable discipline on the part of the listener. The reason is that listeners tend to fall into their comfort zones by absorbing what they want to hear and ignoring what they need to hear. This screening can result in selective hearing that can lead to incorrect conclusions based upon inconclusive data and information. Listening is as much art as science, and the opportunity for error is large. By not using both sides of the brain, the likelihood of error increases dramatically.

Four Steps for Effective and Active Listening

To listen well using both sides of the brain, project managers should perform these actions: hear, clarify, interpret, and respond as shown in Figure 4.1.

Figure 1 Listening flowchart.

Hear
To listen actively and effectively, a project manager must be a good hearer. Hearing involves picking up the sounds of the speaker by performing these actions:

• Allow the other person to talk, not just the project manager.
• Avoid interruptions, unless it is absolutely necessary.
• Clear one's mind of distractions; e.g., other priorities.
• Clear the environment of distractions; e.g., noise.
• Encourage the speaker to expound on what is being said through verbal and nonverbal cues on the part of the project manager.
• Focus on the speaker; e.g., maintain eye contact.
• Listen to what is said and not how it is said.
• Model the speaker's physical behavior to encourage further talking.
• Observe nonverbal behavior as well as what is said.
• Recognize that hearing is a psychological and physiological process.
• Recognize the influence of verbal and nonverbal behavior.
• Strive to eliminate any preconceived notions; e.g., stereotypes and prejudgments.
• Use open-ended questions to encourage the speaker to continue talking.

A common example of violating the above actions is a project manager who feels that he has to do all the talking. Not only that, he or she ignores comments that are contrary, resulting in selective hearing. The statement "tell me what I want to hear and not what I need to hear" summarizes this action.

Clarify
Upon hearing the speaker, the next step for a project manager is to clarify what was said. Often, what is said is not completely or accurately heard. Although the speaker has the responsibility to ensure that what he or she said is understood, the reality is that the listener must make some effort, too, and the onus rests with the latter. Here are some steps to help clarify what was said:

• Acknowledge the feelings behind what is said.
• Ask questions to probe for further detail.
• Avoid asking leading questions to get the desired comment or response.
• Avoid coming to conclusions before the speaker finishes.
• Be cognizant of the speaker's choice and application of words.
• Encourage feedback through questioning.
• Follow up on clichés and platitudes.
• Keep all of your questions pertinent to the topic.
• Look for indicators of selective perception either on the project manager's part or the speaker's.
• Look for synchronicity between what was said and body language.
• Maintain two-way communication.
• Paraphrase what was said and verify for accuracy.
• Think critically about what was said but don't display critical behavior.
• Try to separate assumptions from facts and data.

The biggest challenge facing project managers when seeking clarification is the failure to ask questions that probe to determine the cause of a problem or situation. Instead, they either think they must develop a solution right away or they already know the answer. Questions, to them, are either asked perfunctorily or seen as a waste of time.

Interpret
After clarifying what the speaker said, be ready to interpret the message. Interpretation requires ascertaining not only the credibility behind what the speaker said but also an understanding of what was said. Here are some steps for interpreting a speaker's remarks:

• Avoid taking what the speaker says at face value by looking at feelings as well as body language.
• Communicate your interpretation and verify its accuracy.
• Concentrate on facts and data, not perceptions.
• Distinguish between assumptions, and facts and data.
• Identify the main ideas.
• Pay attention to nonverbal communications to determine sincerity about what is said.
• Recognize the influence of one's thoughts and perceptions on the topic.

The halo effect can prove the biggest challenge to interpreting what is said. Project managers, like all other humans, can find their interpretations as being the result of a characteristic of the person speaking. They can end up exercising selective hearing that can ultimately result in erroneous thinking and coming to inaccurate conclusions.

Respond
Finally, the project manager will likely have to respond to what the speaker said. Of the four steps, this one is optional. Any response will have a physiological, emotional, and psychological aspect to it. Here are some steps to respond effectively:

• Be sincere in offering help.
• Conduct follow-up, if necessary, on any resulting request by the project manager or the speaker.
• Demonstrate a physiological (e.g., body language) and psychological response.
• Exhibit empathy rather than sympathy.
• Exhibit verbal and nonverbal cues that build bridges rather than walls between the project manager and the speaker.
• Seek feedback on your response.

An example of good response is that a project manager might set a time to revisit an issue or problem to discuss the effectiveness of any solution to it. Such action is absolutely critical to ensure that any recommendations or solutions to the issue or problem have been dealt with effectively.

The Most Important Skill

Listening is the hardest communications skill. So many circumstances require it; so few project managers practice it. Of course, they are not alone in this regard. Yet, project managers need to be premier listeners because they must deal with a wide range and number of stakeholders. If they fail to listen, project managers cannot reasonably expect a stakeholder to become partially or fully engaged on a project.

About the Author
From Effective Communications for Project Management by Ralph Kliem, PMP. New York: Auerbach Publications, 2007.