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Meeting Four– I Hear You

Opening the Meeting

Listening is a super skill to have.  Most of the time people fail to listen, either because a man thinks he is too important to listen to someone else, or he is so worried about what he is going to say that he is rehearsing in his mind while the other guy is talking. Sometimes a man fails to listen simply because he has never learned to listen.  This meeting will work on building listening skills.

Opening Round

Keep the Opening Round short.  The Query for this meeting is “In a word or phrase, what describes good listening?”

First Exercise: Four Ways of Conversation

This exercise is in four parts.  Each part deals with one aspect of listening.  In order to become more aware of how people listen, the men first replicate poor listening practices and then model connected listening skills.

Part 1: Ignored

Part 2: The Thief

Part 3: Connected Listening

Part 4: No Words

Second Exercise: Reflective Listening

In this exercise the men practice understanding what they heard and then repeating it back to the speaker in their own words, followed by an opportunity for the speaker to correct any misinterpretation.  It sounds easy, but it is not.  

Closing the Meeting

The meetings typically end with a short round in which each man says how he is feeling and takes can of any unfinished business. The manual also contains various rituals that groups use to close a meeting.