Pick a favorite concept that we have covered through this course and
post about it. Explain the concept to refresh our memories. Tell
the class why you have chosen this
concept, and what it is you like about it.
My favorite concept in this
course is listening in groups from chapter 7. There are four components of
listening: sensing (hearing the message), interpreting the message, evaluating
the message content, and memory: retaining and responding to the message. Of
course there will be barriers to listening; lack of interest, external and
internal noise, thought speed and ambushing to name a couple of barriers.
I chose this concept
because it was fun reading about the barriers when it comes to listening to
others. Personally I liked this concept because I saw how each of the barriers
applied when I had to listen to others. In groups, I believe that it is harder
to listen due to the number of people in the crowd. I thought that being able
to listen without barriers is a good skill to have in any type of conversation,
whether it’s with one person or with twenty other people. It is important to
practice active listening because we need to fully understand the other person’s
message.
The concept of listening in groups is also one I enjoyed learning about because good listening skills are so important to a member’s ability to contribute to a group’s effectiveness. The authors of our textbook mention many barriers to active listening, which can all affect a group’s functioning. You mentioned noise. In addition, the authors wrote about lack of interest, arrogance and disrespect, programmed emotional responses, ambushing, listening for facts, faking attention, thought speed and other barriers. The ones that I find myself doing are lack of interest—some goings-on in meetings are so boring to me—and thought speed—quite often I’ll think to myself, “I know where he’s going with this, why doesn’t he just hurry up and say it!” However, knowing that these barriers occur and that I’m susceptible will help me avoid them so that I can be a better contributor to groups.
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