Creative Communication Creative Communities

Everything is Communication. This is why we do what we do at INSPIRIT. So much of our time and energy is spent on worrying or fretting over misunderstandings caused by poor communication. Good intentions get misinterpreted as criticism, hard work is felt as being unappreciated. The luxury that a (skilled) facilitator has is the position to step back and listen. Listen well.

The newest book in the Change the Way series: Change the Way You See Yourself speaks of listening. Interestingly, the book says, "Listen soft" ... as opposed to the usual advice to "listen hard." What a different approach this is!

Soft listening implies showering your attention on someone in a way that illuminates the deeper significance of what is being said.

Listening softer means being more open, being more compassionate, allowing all barriers to diffuse...also softly... enabling the heart, the soul, and the entire being to really hear what the other person is communicating. Until you can actually feel what is being said.

When this happens, when you allow compassion to facilitate your ability to listen, you become interconnected with the other being and begin to stop all the inner chatter that often blocks understanding. We need to practice this more. We need to create more facilitators who can help people to do this. To communicate as human beings, not project officers or evaluators or supervisors...but as human beings.

Ultimately, that's who we are, right?