Thursday, February 22, 2007

More oneliners

There is some contradiction in the fact that the busier I get working with communities of practice the less time I find to blog about my experiences. And a blog does not seem the best place for digesting experiences, rather for pointing to new articles, phrases, things you overheard that ring a bell, etc.

So here are two oneliners I heard at the end of a meeting about e-tools and communication, worth sharing with you:
'Communiceren is zo dicht mogelijk langs elkaar heen praten'
(seems to be a quote from Seth Gaaikema :)
'Luisteren is wachten tot de ander is uitgepraat'
I discovered the first one is quite famous and even the titel of a book.

Those are hard to translate but let me try: 'communication is trying to talk as closely as possible past each other' (don't know if that's still english). The second one is easier: 'Listening is waiting till the other finished talking'

1 comment:

hoong said...

'Luisteren is wachten tot de ander is uitgepraat'

IF only listening is that easy! Listening is not an easy skill to master. To be a good listener is more than just 'be patience and wait till the other finish talking'.

While we are trying to listen, we are constantly being influence by outside noises: emotions, familiarity of the topics, biases, actual physical background noises, experiences... the list is long and varied.

But I also think, if one wants a good ear to listen to us, we have to be sensitive to the 'problems' that are facing the 'listener'.

I can only be as good a listener, when I feel I am totally, and together, submerge in the 'problems/issues' of the speaker.