Effective Listening - a cornerstone of effective business analysis

Effective Listening: a Cornerstone of Business Analysis

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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Content

• 1-The human brain processes Information in a very biased way.

• 2- People often believe in stories that may have very little evidence to support them.

• 3-BAs can promote effective listening skills that bridge reality gaps between stakeholders.

• 4- A person’s perception of the world is their reality.

• 5-Listening is the most important communication skill.

• 6- Our education does not teach us to listen well enough.

• 7-Poor communication makes us waste 45% of our lives.

• 8-Listening goes beyond hearing.

• 9-Listening with your 6th sense is essential.

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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The human brain processes Information in a very biased way

• “In processing information, our brains tend to perceive stimuli in terms of their own past experiences and may systematically filter out information not in accordance with these experiences.

• Brains have difficulty processing all the relevant information – there is too much, it may not fit with expectations and previous patterns, and some of it simply may be too threatening to accept” [Kurstedt 2000]

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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People often believe in stories that may have very little evidence to support them

• Kahneman has demonstrated that the confidence people have in their beliefs is a judgment of the coherence of the story that the mind has managed to construct. People tend to have great belief in stories that may have very little evidence to support them.

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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BAs can promote effective listening skills that bridge reality gaps between stakeholders

• One important responsibility of a Business Analyst (BA) is to ensure that false beliefs and false expectations are not cultivated and that strong consensus is achieved among all project stakeholders.

• This presentation explores the reasons why Project Stakeholders can have different perceptions of the same information and how BAs can promote effective listening skills that bridge reality gaps between stakeholders.

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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A person’s perception of the world is their reality

• Kurstedt reminds us that just as one person experiences differently what another person perceives when she sees the color green, even if both parties agree to call this color green, each person’s perception of the same light stimuli can be profoundly different.

• Effective communication is the only means by which two persons can reconcile their respective perceptions of reality.

• Communication becomes effective when each reality is not only understood but also truly accepted by both parties.

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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Listening is the most important communication skill

• A study has shown that while people are awake they spent between 70 to 80% of their time communicating.

• Communication time is then distributed as follow:

– 45% listening

– 30% speaking

– 16% reading

– 9% writing Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic

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Our education does not teach us to listen well enough

• Another study by Madelyn Burley-Allen shows the time allocated to teaching various communication skills throughout a typical education:

– 12 years of writing

– 6 to 8 years of reading

– 1 to 2 years of speaking

– Half a year of listening!

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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Our education does not teach us to listen well enough

• If you agree that learning happens through communication, and that human communication favors listening, then the very small amount of time our education dedicates to teaching listening skills makes us handicapped learners and poor communicators.

• It should come with little surprise that most people are not effective at bridging the kind of reality gaps discussed in this presentation.

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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Poor communication makes us waste 45% of our lives

• Combine the 80% of life spent on communicating with the 45 and 30 percent of that time spent listening and speaking: we are then either talking to someone or listening to someone for 60% of the time.

• Research shows that on average people are about 25% effective at oral communication thus yielding a staggering 45% of our time wasted because we are either not being understood or we are not understanding other people!

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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Listening goes beyond hearing

• Mehrabian postulates that the information communicated to us when we listen to someone is distributed as follow: – 7% from words

– 38% from vocal cues (tone, inflection, etc..)

– 55% from body language (facial, posture, gestures)

• BAs must become skilled at ‘listening’ to all the above sources of information during face to face meetings.

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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Listening with your 6th sense is essential

• The BA can train herself to become skilled at:

–Perceiving the feelings in other persons with empathy.

–Perceiving the positive or negative energy around a person.

–Perceiving the meaning within the message and between the message: silence can speak volume.

Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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Copyrights (c) 2011-2013 Pragmatic Cohesion Consulting

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For Comments and Questions contact [email protected]

References:

• Kurstedt, H. (2000), Management Systems Theory, Applications,and Design,

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University - ISE Department,

Blacksburg VA.

• Madelyn Burley-Allen (1995), Listening: The Forgotten Skill:

A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides)