To listen is an effort..!!

Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again. This is very common and stupid example that we all have experience in our day-to-day communication. I had never thought that, I will write something on “listening”. But the first few days of my job encouraged me to concentrate on this part of communication process, after all which boss in the world would like to repeat his instructions again and again in front of his subordinates.

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The people who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. But still it is the most underestimated factor which is overlooked by all age groups. While interacting, people often are not listening attentively to one another. They may be distracted, thinking about other things, or thinking about what they are going to say next (the latter case is particularly true in conflict situations or disagreements).

I often wonder that what can be the root cause for such blunders and shared my thoughts with some concerned persons that resulted to a very interesting discussion. After an appealing discussion, I came across the two main reasons that can better be classified in two factors that very well defined the root cause of lack of ability to listen. They are:

1. Factor of Abundance: The ‘Factor of Abundance’ says that, an individual resist to listen because he perceives that he knows more than the speaker. So why should he waste his time listening to speaker. An example for the same can be noticed in a GD (Group Discussion) round where all the candidates try to fire all their ideas, opinions one by one without being concern of others view point.
2. Factor of Scarcity: As per ‘Factor of Scarcity’, an individual refuses to listen actively because he perceives that he will not be able to comprehend in the same manner in which speaker is conveying. That is because of lack of knowledge or slow thought process of listener. Example to this factor can be a classroom, where some students are very active and some seems to be completely lost.

There is couple of limitations with these factors; a) It is not a universal truth; & 2) Sometimes it doesn’t work, but exceptions are always there. But most of our problems become simpler if we take care of these factors while communicating. Listening is with the mind, it is a process which generates ideas, thoughts, attitudes and emotions. But to listen an effort is needed and just hear is of no merit.