Listening is harder than reading. In reading you can pause to take a break or take notes, start over, read multiple times, and you can mark up the text. If you are doing professional listening on the job, working with clients, or even in class, you have to take the listening up a notch. It is no longer casual listening and simple conversation.
If you are listening to the boss, client, or a peer about a task, project, or expectations, it is important to hear and understand the key bits. It is also important for the speaker to know that you are indeed listening, got it, understand it, and can proceed with whatever is being talked about. Often this means making and keeping eye contact, giving verbal or non-verbal feedback (e.g., nodding of the head) at key points. You cannot zone out and think about other things.
Do some preparation in advance if you have to - it will reduce stumbling, help you concentrate on what is being said, and allow you to look bright, engaged, and smart
Anticipate what the conversation is about and do some homework, research, thinking in advance; so that while there will be some surprises, you are not 100% clueless.
Do some background research if you do not know much about the topic - learn the terminology, the nouns, verbs and if it is a client type situation - their products, key phrases.
Anticipate questions you might want to ask.
Anticipate answers to questions you might have to answer.
Quickly develop some understanding as to the theme, thesis or antithesis of the conversation - what is the intent - you need to know this to filter and organize what you are hearing.
You want to develop the ability to hear and then ditch ‘noise’ - do not clutter your memory with irrelevant material - it is like a textbook chapter or class, not everything is worthy or important, know that it exists, but it shouldn’t be your top priority.
Listen for any verbs or nouns that relate to the purpose of the discussion - this is why you need the vocabulary before you chat.
Listen for any qualifiers used - what is being emphasized, the type of emphasis - in class, the instructor might use the words should, must, could, might, can - all are important to catch and understand.
Listen for any adjectives and phrases used - what is being emphasized, the type of emphasis - e.g., most people, really expensive.
Listen for things that might suggest a mean and standard deviation implication - e.g., most of the time the number of x is y, plus or minus z. They will not use phrases like average, mean, median, variance, or standard deviation.
Listen to anything that is repeated.
Listen to the sequence and grouping of words.
As you listen, try to create techniques for remembering what is said - perhaps pretend it is a story you are being told and you use imagery to make it into a puzzle - whatever makes it stick!
Many of the points above came from a workshop for actors on how to read and understand Shakespeare - the actor needs to interpret and understand what Shakespeare intended - the emotion, the body language, the speed of speech, etc. The actors are taught to look for sequences, at the adjectives, etc.
Shakespeare does not tell you what is funny, happy, sad, ironic, monumental, or sarcastic, you have to figure it out. This is the same with listening. It all comes down to the words and the patterns of words. Not all words are important.
You want to hear and understand the words you should hear and understand.
