How I listen to be of greatest service

As a graphic recorder, when people ask me what I really do, I tell them, “I get paid to listen.” Often, when people see visual practitioners work, they notice the more performative aspects of what we do: being at the front of the room, holding space for conversation, guiding a process, and drawing on large sheets of paper. What people don’t see is often of most value - our ability to listen deeply, and faithfully. 

To me, listening in the context of our Graphic Recording work means:

• Honoring all voices in the room, especially voices that are softer, heard less often, and are traditionally marginalized. 

• Amplifying all ideas, irrespective of whether or not I believe in them.

• Being fully present and focused on the conversation. Listening is hard, but I commit to diligently doing the work. This means, having the physical stamina to be focused, being mentally resilient, and being objective - knowing and understanding my role as a witness.

• Always asking myself: “Who am I being, and how do I impact the energy in the room? Am I creating a space of trust and a non-judgment with my thoughts, words, and actions? How is my (sometimes, silent) presence shaping the conversation?” 

• Being able to zoom in to capture specific ideas, data points, and perspectives - and zooming out to see the emerging patterns and the big picture.

“How do you listen?
How do you know what’s important, and what’s not?
How do you filter information?
”

When we train workshop participants in our Visual Facilitation workshops, the consistent questions every participant has is, “How do you listen?”. Also, “How do you know what’s important, and what’s not?”, and “How do you filter information?”.

Our listening model is a first attempt at decoding my listening process. I was inspired by this article on What Great Listeners Actually Do, by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman in HBR, which gave me a starting framework to structure my own thinking.

Here are 4 things to keep in mind:

Tip 1: Always ground yourself in the needs of the group. 

What you capture, how much you capture — and how deep you go, depends on what that group needs. Always be sure you understand their explicit needs and stated workshop objectives (we need to create our goals for the year) — and the more implicit needs (we need to start being a more cohesive team...we need to start building trust).

Tip 2: Pay attention to the 3 levels of listening.

Listen for substance; Listen for patterns; Listen for empathy.

Again, what you’re listening for and capturing varies based on the needs and objectives of the group — and your own level of comfort and skill. Often, our work includes a combination of these three levels — and I’m constantly inviting myself to go deeper and below the surface.

Tip 3: Train yourself to be a better listener. 

Shut down distractions. Practice more. Do the self-reflection and work needed to grow. 

Tip 4: Be aware of your own “listening flags” and work to overcome them.

As a graphic recorder, I do filter and distill conversions to focus on capturing the key nuggets of insight and ideas. Filtering content to focus on what’s most valuable for the group is an essential graphic recording competency.

However, we all need to be more conscious of the “red flags” that show up in our listening process and work to mitigate them. When I first started this work, the three red flags that showed up most often were:

• A strong personal preference for ideas. I noticed that I was amplifying ideas that I thought were best.

• Greater comfort with certain communication styles and accents. Growing up in India, I wasn’t frequently exposed to groups with multi-cultural communication styles. When I started this work in a more global context, I noticed that my brain would unconsciously throw up a barrier when it needed to do the “extra work” of listening to new accents and styles of speaking. I now pay special attention to this and work actively to ensure that I honor all voices equally.

• My inner critic. The voice in my head that told me I wasn’t drawing well or showing up as “good enough”. Whenever this inner critic shows up now, I quickly deflect by telling myself, “How you look, doesn’t matter at all. This isn’t about you. It’s about being of service to the group. Do your damn job”. That always works!

Good listening has the power to acknowledge the listener, help them feel validated and sometimes, even facilitate healing. How do you listen?