Julian Treasure - 5 ways to listen better
Summary
TLDRThe speaker highlights the importance of conscious listening, noting that while we spend a lot of time hearing, we retain only a small portion of what we hear. He introduces listening as a skill that involves recognizing patterns and filtering sounds. He explains how modern distractions and noise have eroded our ability to listen carefully. To combat this, he suggests five practical exercises, including practicing silence and savoring mundane sounds, to enhance our listening. He advocates for teaching listening in schools to foster better understanding, connection, and ultimately, peace in society.
Takeaways
- 👂 We spend around 60% of our communication time listening, yet we only retain 25% of what we hear.
- 🧠 Listening is about making meaning from sound through mental processes like pattern recognition.
- 🎧 We use techniques such as recognizing patterns (like hearing our name in a noisy environment) and differencing (tuning out constant sounds).
- 🎚 Filters in our brain help us focus on specific sounds, but we are often unaware of them.
- 👫 Listening is crucial for relationships; intentional listening can strengthen connections.
- 📡 Sound helps place us in space and time, shaping our awareness of surroundings and the flow of time.
- 🔊 Modern technology, noise, and personal sound bubbles have reduced our ability and patience for active listening.
- 🌍 Conscious listening is essential for understanding and connecting with the world, and its loss can have serious consequences.
- 🛠 Five listening exercises to improve listening: silence, the mixer (focusing on sound layers), savoring, changing listening positions, and using the acronym RASA (Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask).
- 🎓 Teaching listening in schools could create a world more connected, peaceful, and understanding.
Q & A
What is the main issue the speaker identifies regarding listening?
-The speaker identifies that we are 'losing our listening'—meaning, although we spend around 60% of our communication time listening, we are not very good at it and only retain about 25% of what we hear.
How does the speaker define listening?
-The speaker defines listening as 'making meaning from sound.' It is a mental process that involves extracting information from sounds using techniques like pattern recognition and filtering.
What are some techniques we use to process sound?
-We use techniques such as pattern recognition to distinguish important sounds (e.g., our name) from background noise, and 'differencing,' which involves tuning out sounds that remain constant, like background noise.
How do filters affect our listening?
-Filters reduce the vast amount of sound around us to what we actually pay attention to, often without us being aware. These filters shape our reality because they determine what we focus on at any given moment.
Why is intention important in listening?
-Intention is important because it helps to focus and improve the quality of listening. For example, the speaker mentions promising to listen to his wife as if for the first time every day, illustrating how intention can elevate conscious listening.
What impact does sound have on our perception of space and time?
-Sound helps us perceive space by giving us information about the size of a room and the presence of people. It also places us in time because sound always has a temporal aspect, contributing to our sense of the flow of time.
Why does the speaker believe we are losing the ability to listen?
-The speaker believes that technological advances like recording have reduced the need for careful listening, while the increasing noise of the world and impatience for quick sound bites further erode our listening skills.
What exercises does the speaker recommend to improve listening?
-The speaker recommends five exercises: 1) Silence, 2) 'The Mixer'—listening to different sound channels, 3) Savoring mundane sounds, 4) Changing listening positions, and 5) Using the acronym 'RASA' (Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask).
What does the acronym 'RASA' stand for, and how does it relate to listening?
-'RASA' stands for Receive (pay attention), Appreciate (use small affirmations), Summarize (use 'so' to summarize), and Ask (ask questions). It’s a useful tool for improving communication and ensuring active listening.
Why does the speaker emphasize the need to teach listening in schools?
-The speaker argues that listening is fundamental to understanding, connection, and peace, yet it is not taught as a skill. By teaching conscious listening, we could create a more connected and understanding world.
Outlines
🎧 The Importance of Listening and How We’re Losing It
The speaker begins by discussing how we spend a significant portion of our communication time listening, yet we’re not very good at it, retaining only 25% of what we hear. Listening is defined as making meaning from sound, which involves techniques like pattern recognition and differentiation. The speaker explains how our unconscious filters help us focus on particular sounds, influencing our perception of reality. Intentional listening, such as promising to listen to a partner every day as if for the first time, is a skill that requires daily effort.
🔊 How Sound Influences Our Perception of Space and Time
Sound not only places us in space but also in time. By closing our eyes, we can perceive the size of a room and the presence of others through sound reverberation. Sound carries time within it, allowing us to experience the flow from past to future. The speaker mentions that the advent of recording technologies has diminished the need for active listening, and the noisy modern world, filled with distractions, makes it harder for people to truly listen. This has led to impatience and a shift away from deep conversation towards sound bites and personal broadcasting.
🧠 The Dangers of Losing Our Listening Skills
The speaker emphasizes the dangers of losing our ability to listen, as it is crucial for understanding and consciousness. Media constantly competes for our attention, making it harder to focus on subtle sounds. The speaker warns that a world where we fail to listen to each other is a frightening prospect. Listening is essential for building connections and understanding, and without it, we risk living in a disjointed society. To address this, the speaker introduces five exercises to improve conscious listening.
🤫 Five Simple Exercises to Enhance Listening Skills
The first exercise is silence—just three minutes of quiet per day can reset and recalibrate our ears, helping us hear subtle sounds again. The second is the ‘mixer’ exercise, where listeners pay attention to different channels of sound, even in noisy environments. The third exercise is savoring, which involves appreciating mundane sounds, like the rhythm of a tumble dryer. These exercises are meant to help individuals improve their conscious listening abilities.
🎶 Listening Positions and the RASA Acronym
The speaker explains the concept of listening positions, encouraging individuals to consciously shift their listening based on the situation. By playing with filters, we can tailor our listening to the context. The speaker introduces the acronym RASA (Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask), a tool for improving communication through active listening. Listening is portrayed as a vital skill for fully engaging with the world, both physically and spiritually.
📚 The Need to Teach Listening in Schools
The speaker concludes by arguing that listening should be taught as a skill in schools, as it is foundational to connection and understanding. Without it, society risks moving towards a world where no one listens to each other. By teaching conscious listening, we could transform the world within a generation into one of peace, connection, and understanding. The speaker urges the TED community to take up this mission and work towards making listening a core part of education.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Listening
💡Pattern Recognition
💡Differencing
💡Filters
💡Silence
💡Mixer
💡Savoring
💡Listening Positions
💡RASA
💡Conscious Listening
Highlights
We spend roughly 60% of our communication time listening, but we retain only 25% of what we hear.
Listening is defined as making meaning from sound; it's a mental process of extraction.
Pattern recognition helps us differentiate noise from signal, as seen in situations like cocktail parties.
Differencing is a technique where we stop hearing constant sounds after a while, tuning into changes.
Filters shape our listening by guiding what we pay attention to, often unconsciously influencing our reality.
Intention plays a crucial role in listening, especially in relationships, where listening attentively can strengthen bonds.
Sound places us in space and time, providing cues about the environment and the flow of time.
Our reliance on recording technologies has diminished the need for careful and accurate listening.
The world has become noisier, making it harder and more tiring to listen, causing many to withdraw into personal sound bubbles.
The art of conversation is being replaced by personal broadcasting, leading to less genuine listening in interactions.
Media and headlines now need to shout for attention, making it harder to appreciate subtle or quiet sounds.
Conscious listening leads to understanding and connection; without it, the world becomes a more disconnected and frightening place.
Simple exercises like practicing silence, savoring everyday sounds, and adjusting listening positions can improve conscious listening.
The acronym 'RASA' stands for Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, and Ask, helping to improve communication and listening.
Teaching listening in schools is essential for fostering understanding, connection, and peace in future generations.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Music]
we are losing our listening
we spend roughly 60% of our
communication time listening but we're
not very good at it we retain just 25%
of what we hear now not you not this
talk but that is generally true
let's define listening as making meaning
from sound it's a mental process and
it's a process of extraction we use some
pretty cool techniques to do this one of
them is pattern recognition so in a
cocktail party like this if I say David
Sara pay attention some of you just sat
up we recognize patterns to distinguish
noise from signal and especially our
name
differencing is another technique we use
if I left this pink noise on for more
than a couple of minutes you would
literally cease to hear it we listen to
differences we discount sounds that
remain the same and then there is a
whole range of filters these filters
take us from all sound down to what we
pay attention to most people are
entirely unconscious of these filters
but they actually create our reality in
a way because they tell us what we're
paying attention to right now give you
one example of that intention is very
important in sound in listening when I
married my wife I promised her that I
would listen to her everyday as if for
the first time now that's something I
fall short of on a daily basis but it's
a great intention to have in a
relationship
but that's not all sound places us in
space and in time if you close your eyes
right now in this room you're aware of
the size of the room from the
reverberation and the bouncing of the
sound off the surfaces and you're aware
of how many people are around you
because whether the micro noises you're
receiving and sound places us in time as
well because sound always has time
embedded in it in fact I would suggest
that our listening is the main way that
we experience the flow of time from past
to future
so sonority is time of meaning a great
quote I said at the beginning we're
losing our listening why did I say that
well there are a lot of reasons for the
first of all we invented ways of
recording first writing then audio
recording and now video recording as
well the premium on accurate and careful
listening has simply disappeared
secondly the world is now so noisy with
this cacophony going on visually and
auditorily it's just hard to listen it's
tiring to listen many people take refuge
in headphones but they turn big public
spaces like this shared sound escapes
into millions of tiny little personal
sound bubbles in this scenario nobody's
listening to anybody we're becoming
impatient we don't want oratory anymore
we want sound bytes and the art of
conversation is being replaced
dangerously I think by personal
broadcasting I don't know how much
listening there is in this conversation
which is sadly very common especially in
the UK we're becoming desensitized our
media have to scream at us with these
kind of headlines in order to get our
attention and that means it's harder for
us to pay attention to the quiet the
subtle the understated
this is a serious problem that we're
losing our listening this is not trivial
because listening is our access to
understanding consciousness thing always
creates understanding and only without
conscious listening can these things
happen a world where we don't listen to
each other at all is a very scary place
indeed
so I'd like to share with you five
simple exercises tools you can take away
with you to improve your own conscious
listening would you like that
good the first one is silence just three
minutes a day of silence is a wonderful
exercise to reset your ears and to
recalibrate so that you can hear the
quiet again if you can't get absolute
silence go for quiet that's absolutely
fine
second I call this the mixer so even if
you're in a noisy environment like this
and we or spend a lot of time in places
like this listen in the coffee bar - how
many channels of sound can I hear how
many individual channels in that mix am
i listening to you can do it in a
beautiful place as well like a lake how
many birds am i hearing where are they
where are those ripples it's a great
exercise for improving the quality of
your listening
third this exercise I call savoring and
this is a beautiful exercise it's about
enjoying mundane sounds this for example
is my tumble dryer it's a waltz
three one two three I love it or just
try this one on for size
[Applause]
Wow
so mundane sounds can be really
interesting if you pay attention I call
that the hidden choir it's around us all
the time the next exercise is probably
the most important of all of these if
you just take one thing away this is
listening positions the idea that you
can move your listening position to
what's appropriate to what you're
listening to this is playing with those
filters remember I gave you those
filters at the beginning it's starting
to play with them as levers to get
conscious about them and to move to
different places these are just some of
the listening positions or scales of
listening positions that you can use
there are many have fun with that it's
very exciting and finally an acronym you
can use this in listening in
communication if you're in any one of
those roles and I think that probably is
everybody who is listening for this talk
the acronym is rasa which is the
Sanskrit word for juice or essence and
rasa stands for receive which means pay
attention to the person appreciate
making little noises like oh okay
summarize the word so is very important
in communication and ask ask questions
afterwards now sound is my passion it's
my life I wrote a whole book about it so
I live to listen that's too much to ask
for most people but I believe that every
human being needs to listen consciously
in order to live fully connected in
space and in time to the physical world
around us connected in understanding to
each other not to mention spiritually
connected because every spiritual path I
know of has listening and contemplation
at its heart
that's why we need to teach listening in
our schools as a skill why is it not
taught it's crazy and if we can teach
listening in our schools we can take our
listening off that slippery slope to
that dangerous scary world that I talked
about and move it to a place where
everybody is consciously listening all
the time or at least capable of doing it
now I don't know how to do that but this
is Ted and I think the Ted community is
capable of anything so I invite you to
connect with me connect with each other
take his mission out and let's get
listening taught in schools and
transformed the world in one generation
to a conscious listening world a world
of connection a world of understanding
and a world of peace thank you for
listening to me today
[Applause]
[Music]
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