504

Active Listener is going off track and/or misunderstanding the speaker?

There was a question about;

I think as a facilitator, if the speaker is really going off track then you want to interrupt them and say,

"Please remember that your role right now as the reflector is just to reflect what you're hearing the person say. Right now you're starting to tell a story about something that happened to you. You can do that when it's your turn to speak if you want, but right now your role is just to reflect back what you're hearing."

So if someone is going off on a tangent of their own, you want to interrupt them. If they are just misunderstanding the speaker, you want to let the speaker have an opportunity to correct them and let a self-correcting process happen.

The speaker can say, "Well, you got this part, but no you missed this." or "You missed it completely and here's what I'm wanting to say."

If the listener misses it a second, or third time, and the speaker's getting frustrated, that's when you would want to intervene as a facilitator and say "Well this is what I'm hearing, I'm hearing that this is the pieces that's missing is that right? "

If the speaker feels heard hopefully the listener will learn from that.

So you have an ongoing thing there trying to help the listener understand the speaker. You'll have a chance to practice those kinds of situations in the next class and the fourth class. Those are some of the things we call "Challenges." There are things that happen in the circle that the facilitator has to do something about to keep the Empathy Circle on track and in the process.

Question:  What if the listener is going off track?

A Challenge:

Name:  Raised from feedback

Date:   28.04.21

Video:  x4  https://youtu.be/X1XmdYoOQ5g

Answer:  As the facilitator, if the listener is really going off, interrupt “please remember that your role as the reflect right now you are starting to tell a story about you, you can do that. Right now your role is just to reflect back

Question:  What if the listener is misunderstanding the speaker?

A Challenge:

Name:  Raised from feedback

Date:   28.04.21

Video:  x4  https://youtu.be/X1XmdYoOQ5g

Answer:  Let the speaker have the opportunity to correct them. If the listener missed it a 3rd or 4th time and the speaker is getting frustrated. You can intervene as the facilitators “this is what I am hearing” “Is that right?”