How do you use active listening to spark innovation in your team?

Active listening is the art of fully immersing oneself in the melody of another's words. It's not just lending an ear, but giving one's heart and soul. It's deciphering the unspoken notes between the lines, sensing the rhythm in their tone, and feeling the crescendo of their emotions. It's the gentle art of dancing to someone’s story without stepping on their narrative. Through asking, paraphrasing, and reflecting, we weave a bond of understanding. We build bridges of trust, sculpt statues of respect, and paint canvases of connection. It's a silent message saying, "I see you, I value you, and your story matters to me."

Active listening is listening to understand and not to respond. When practicing active listening, its important to focus in on what the other person is saying and trying to convey, rather than hanging onto what was previously said and anticipating how you should respond. When actively listening, I've found it helpful to start my response by acknowledging what the other person just said so they know that I am hearing them during the conversation.

Questions are crucial. Not only to understand but to process the information yourself. Active listening isn't just to ensure the other person feels heard, but also to ensure you understand. Even if you have gotten to the root or end of the conversation. Clarifying questions will never hurt. "It's not bad to be the dumbest person in the room" - Simon Sinek. You may help others that don't understand by asking questions.

Our mind is like a parachute — it works best when it is open. Therefore Active Listening is having that Open Mind to “Really Listen” and understand the ideas conveyed by someone. I want to add more but there are a lot of great ideas shared by my fellow contributors here.

Two ears and one mouth! I believe that active listening is the most important skill, particularly for high ticket sales. Effective questioning, using a mix of open, direct, and closed questions, is a great complement to active listening. In recruitment, active listening means picking up on subtle cues from candidates, such as reservations or concerns, and addressing them head-on with effective questioning. It's also important to remember the customer's perspective - "what's in it for me" - and to sell back effectively. By mastering active listening, you'll be able to better understand your clients' needs and offer relevant solutions.

Innovation comes from thinking creatively/differently and by exploring multiple things but as a single being, you cannot do it. Also the best way to generate new ideas is to listen effectively and take ideas, suggestions from others perspective, and you can also add in your bit and experiences to create something new and unique.

I try to engage and draw into the conversation people who wouldn’t typically be involved in that discussion and then let them talk, jumping in with a prompt to keep the conversation going when needed.

Active listening is vital for innovation and keeping an open mind is an important aspect of it. We evolve by looking at matters from someone else’s viewpoint and by welcoming different ideas we increase our understanding. This in turn contributes to the improvement and creation of processes. It also helps in finding ways to do things better and resolve conflict.

Active listening is important for innovation because in order to take in new information and ideas- we must be open to hearing new perspectives on things. In order to work together collaboratively on innovative projects, we have to put our active listening skills to practice in all of our personal and professional conversations. This will help us to be more informed and well-rounded individuals.

I make it a point to be the last one to speak, other than to share intended outcomes and required guardrails. Always validate what has been shared by at least restating what you heard and thanking them for jumping into the conversation. Bonus points if you can find something interesting or impactful about their idea that can be validated as well. Until the decision-making time comes, just rely on questions. Don't be afraid to make them critical questions for them to think through what they have shared, but all ideas within parameters should be considered until everything is on the table.

As a Relationship Coach, I have found that active listening is one of the most crucial skills when working with clients. However, it is equally important in fostering innovation among my coworkers. To encourage open communication, I try to create a safe space where everyone's ideas and opinions are valued. I do this by asking open-ended questions that stimulate creative thinking and generate new ideas. I continue to ask additional questions, offer alternative perspectives with permission, and motivate them to continue innovating. I believe that collaboration is key to driving innovation. By attentively listening and each sharing viewpoints with the encouragement of deeper insights, this approach invariably results in innovative solutions.

As a Communications professional, I've found it helpful to make a conscious effort to participate in conversations with active listening, by giving myself mental reminders to listen to what the other person is saying and really let their thoughts and opinions sink in. You can do this more easily by putting yourself in the other person's shoes and seeing things from their perspective. During interviews, I've sometimes found it helpful to visualize the activity/ instance/ or event that I am being asked about- which helps to better understand how that event or activity makes me feel. In doing this, I can formulate an authentic, and accurate response.

You have to be COACHABLE. This is the key factor in multi layers of success!! (Uncoachable kids become uncoachable adults - that just struggle in all parts of life.)

As an Executive Coach, one of the most valuable questions is "what else"? I may ask it two or three times in relation to one point the person speaking is making.

This is such a common problem when we feel like we have to prove our value. We automatically move into the "fixing the problem mode" and trying to figure out what we are going to say and how we are going to say it, that we totally loose sight of what is actually being discussed. It makes us look distracted, takes away from our impact and ultimately can seem rude.

I agree that active listening is an important factor in ascertaining how invested someone is in what they are proposing/discussing, but in this age of remote working, with Zoom meetings and chat boxes, where most times you don't see the person talking, it becomes harder to determine exactly how they feel. Many times the other person is typing their thoughts in chat, so you don't even get to hear it in their voice. I would love to hear how others have overcome this issue and applied active listening to video collaboration.

In order to overcome challenges and barriers to active listening, you have to first be open to seeing and hearing things from others' perspectives. It's important to understand that you won't always agree with everyone on everything, and you have to have the ability to be respectful of other's thoughts, feelings, and opinions and vice versa. That being said, you also have to maintain your own boundaries and ensure that the other person is also being respectful of your mental, emotional, physical, and social boundaries as well in order to have productive conversations.

In my experience, much easier said than done. Lot's of talk in organizations for the last few decades about active listening, but very few people are actually willing to put aside their own perspective, fears and pre-conceived notions of "what should be" in order to be open to truly innovative ideas. The most important characteristic for anyone leading a team is CURIOSITY. Authentic curiosity leads to an intense interest in each member of your team and is the driver of active listening, because the leader genuinely wants to know. So often SELF and selfish agendas get in the way of true curiosity, caring and actively listening. Curiosity and active listening can't be faked. If you're not really interested, don't ask the question.