Listening is a soft skill when done well can have a powerful impact.
Being a Playback practitioner means you have to listen well.
Have a think for a moment about how you listen. What do you listen for when you listen? How to solve it? How it connects to your own experience? The facts of the story?
As a Playback practitioner one listens to literally hundreds of stories. I think I could safely say it is 50% dependant on the way in which a practitioner listens to a story that can make a difference.
So I think it is worthwhile to put our listening style under the microscope and see what you may want to add to your own listening style.
As a Playbacker listening to a teller (someone telling us a story) you must first and foremost be entirely focussed on that person, this means putting aside your own thoughts.
This is interesting as at the same time one must listen to oneself enough to be aware of what in the story touches you, what has emotion.
In Playback we listen to the tellers body language, the way in which they express themselves, any metaphors they may use, every word the teller uses, these are all important elements about the meaning of the story to the teller.
So it’s a balance to remain aware of yourself and how the story makes you feel but not getting caught up in you and continuing to listen to their story. To me an important essence of this is about being present and giving yourself fully, body, mind and heart to listening to their story being told in that moment.
Letting go of those thoughts about the time, what’s the next step, your own story, your to do list, their clothes etc
Listen to their story with your ears, your mind and your heart and you will be able to more fully respond from the same place and both you and your teller will feel the difference. In Playback language we like to say they feel heard.
