“Can you tell me more about that?”
“Why do you think that you feel that way?”
These are some of the questions we learned to ask today as we embarked on the communications and listening challenge. We served as listeners to the community today by validating and understanding where everyone was coming from with their opinions. Our group found that it was actually much easier to listen to people than to talk, even if they were presenting an opinion we did not agree with.
Too often, people only listen in order to relate to the person talking. Today it was our challenge and mission to take all of it in, and just let it be and reflect it back on the speaker. We were not allowed to comment our own opinions, we only were allowed to prompt the conversation in a direction to reveal people’s true motives and emotions.
We created signs in the beginning of the day with conversation topics such as “What do you think about marijuana?” and “Should I go to college?” Although it was a little scary to approach people with topics like these, it proved to be an enriching and wholesome opportunity for us. Our listening skills have definitely improved, and we are now all much more appreciative of deep conversations.