Verbal Level
LISTENING:
A NEGLECTED, UNDERUTILIZED
POWERFUL Communication Skill
CAROLE GRAU
Communication Consultant & Trainer
Taliaferro/Grau Associates
Thursday, April 4, 7 PM
Albert Ellis Institute
45 East 65th Street
NYSGS Members, Free
Non‑members $5
Perhaps Norbert Weiner said it best when he wrote,“Communication is a joint game between the and listener against the forces of confusion." The spoken word is transitory...fragile... subject to frequent breakdowns, exchanging it far than most people realize.
Listening is a weak link in the process. People spend more time listening than performing any other communication activity.
Surprised? More than 60% of the average workday is spent using listening skills. Experts report that most of us listen at a 25% level of accuracy ignoring, distorting, misunderstanding or forgetting 75% of what we hear. Compounding the problem is the fast-paced, intense atmosphere of our world. Call waiting and voice mail menus promote impatience and encourage interruption, undermining effective listening.
Finally, most people are unaware of their deficiencies…they don't know what they don’t know.
Surrounded by poor listening models in both our formative and adult years, we develop many inappropriate behaviors. Few educational programs offer a comprehensive curriculum to expand and perfect listening skills, although students are dependent upon those skills when receiving instruction.
By the time we reach our adulthood, we tend to communicate on auto-pilot, mindlessly unaware of the impact communication skills have on our professional and personal lives. To make matters worse, our culture glorifies the speaker role and minimizes the importance of the listener, often presenting listening as a passive experience.
Effective and responsible listening skills are a source of enormous personal power. With them you can:
ü Raise communication accuracy
ü Increase information exchange
ü Manage conflicts productively
ü Empower others
ü Save time and improve the bottom line
ü Build self-esteem, trust and respect
ü Transform personal and professional relationships
ü Come…listen…discuss this valuable subject.
Carole Grau is an interpersonal communication consultant and mediator. She has been on the faculty of Brooklyn College and Cornell University. She holds a BA and MA from Brooklyn College, and M.Ed. from Teachers College, Columbia University. She may be reached at >tgatrainer@aol.com<
PRACTICING
EMPATHY:
The Other Side of the Story
ROBEN
TOROSYAN., PhD
Founding Director,
University Writing Center,
New School University, NYC
Thursday, April 25,7 PM
Albert Ellis Institute
45 East 65th Street
NYSGS Members Free
Non‑members $5
Whenever people talk, they tend not to really hear each other. I believe much of this is because we assume conversations are about “egospeak,” about winning, about one-way talk. But both sides of a communication can often "win," if the players agree on the point of conversing. People can seek first to understand, then to be understood. Yet to truly do so requires not simply a moralistic decision to be good. It requires practice. Understanding another requires a skill. And it can be learned. In this workshop we'll try out how.
Participants will experience a group exercise that resembles a debate on a controversial issue such as abortion, capital rights, or the war on terrorism. But instead of simply arguing, we will practice:
* Sharing ideas as opposed to. trying to win an argument
* Receiving, being open to and understanding new ideas different from your own
* Listening without judgment (without anticipating counter arguments or holes in
an
opposing argument)
* Paraphrasing/reflecting back what was said and checking/asking to confirm that
the
speaker was understood.
* Speaking clearly, specifically, briefly
* Making strides towards consensus, even if only agreeing to disagree
Roben Torosyan runs workshops on integrating thinking, writing and learning for faculty, staff and students within New School University, taught leadership, critical thinking, and decision making at Pace University. Roben earned his PhD and Mphil from Teachers College, Columbia University and MA and BA from New York University. He can be reached at >TorosyaR@newschool.edu<
If at first you don't succeed...
“I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is
false.
The hundredth time I am right.”
- Albert Einstein
APRIL 13 SEMINAR POSTPONED
The April 13th seminar has been postponed until further notice due to an unexpected change in circumstances for one of the presenters, Jeff Mordkowitz. He has unexpectedly joined the ranks of those "in transition," as his position as a project manager at J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. was just eliminated, and he needs to devote extra energy to regaining his place among the ranks of the employed.
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socials.
Member $35
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Katherine Liepe-Levinson read excerpts from her new book, Strip Show: Performance of Gender and Desire, at our February 28th meeting. There was a lively discussion with comments and experiences, followed by Katherine's book signing.
New Issue of ETC:
A Review of General Semantics
Vol 58, No. 4; Winter 2001-02
Publication of the International Society or General Semantics
A Selection from the Contents:
Martin Levinson General Semantics in the Supervision and Staff Development of Drug Prevention Specialists.
Don Ranly General Semantics and Journalism – The university of Missouri School of journalism; with papers by five students.
Sanford Berman Opening the Closed Mind: Making Assumptions, Jumping to Conclusions
Kazuya Hara The Word "is" The Thing, Part II
Paul Johnston Baseball 2270 – The A's versus the Non-A's
Raymond Gozzi, Jr. A Brief History of Internet Time
Nora Miller Haiku
David F. Maas Educators Using General Semantics – More than 130 Educators using GS formulations in their courses, in the U.S. and Canada, Czech Republic, France, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, Spain.
Martin Levinson Book Reviews
Basic membership and subscription, $55 a year:
ISGS
P.O. Box 728
Concord, CA 94522