Type 3 Listeners
One of the pleasures of professional services is the chance to meet and work with people and businesses of many kinds. I recently had the chance to work with a group of actors turned consultants and trainers. First, they were clients of mine and then I of theirs, so I got to see them from two perspectives. Whatever the angle, they were different . . . decidedly so.
They understood little of the technicalities of business, be it of banking or of bankruptcy. For all they knew a POS system had something to do with batteries, an NPV might get a ticket for driving in the wrong lane on the expressway, and SOX is a baseball team. They understood little of the economic logic or organizational design of corporations. This meant that they would miss some simple business facts that other professionals would grasp without being told.
You might wonder how consultants could make a go of it without this basic ability. They did it with an uncanny ability to size up another human being almost instantaneously. When a client talked, they might miss a business issue, but they heard every nuance of tone or pitch. They noticed every change in expression and posture. And through these lenses they captured what the speaker was all about as a person. In this, they were far ahead of the other professionals I work with, and, for that matter, ahead of me. It is a powerful skill.
I am accustomed to working with Type 1 Listeners, those who listen to a client’s technical needs, and helping them become Type 2 Listeners, those who seek to learn about the client’s business needs that dictate technical changes.
For example, I might work with civil engineers to go beyond finding ways to increase the employment count and parking on a mature site to seeing that the client needs to add personnel to rapidly increase market share and seize dominance for a new product. I also work with Type 2 Listeners, who listen to understand a client’s business needs, helping them to become Type 3 Listeners, those who seek to understand the client as a person.
It has always progressed in that order, Type 1 to Type 2 and Type 2 to Type 3. What am I to do with people who start out as Type 3 Listeners who must move in the opposite order? As I figure that out, I am learning a lot.
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April 23rd, 2008 at 4:34 am
This categorization of “three levels of listener” is excellent: both easily memorable and correct.
It reminds me of a friend of mine, Terry Brake, who runs a company that trains international teams how to work together. His teaches different cultures are wired differently and so often have trouble communicating. He told me a story of how he was training a group of bright nerdy Silicon Valley software engineers and was teaching them: “you are process-oriented, your Asian counterparts are relationship oriented.” Kind of a Men are from Mars thing. They were all taking notes. One of the engineers asked: “Can you give us a set of steps we can take to build an effective relationship?”
I wonder how many adult Type 1 listeners can make it up the mountain to Type 3?
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
Steve:
The path may be steep, but it is well marked, and given enough time and the desire to make the grade, most can do it. The actors/trainers mentioned in the original post are extremely good at helping people to the summit.
Ford