Creative Listening In Your Business Will Help You Hear Something New And Unexpected

Creative Listening is a skill.

It’s not always easy. Yet listening creatively is one of the coolest practices we can always keep practicing and improving. Truly listening takes muscles. Undivided attention, which it requires, is something we have to put effort towards in part due to the stimuli constantly bombarding us from all directions.

Add to that- pretty much everyone makes assumptions about pretty much everything and we typically also have expectations about most things. We aren’t even aware of it most of the time. It’s natural and it’s automatic. It’s human.

But in order to listen well, expectations and assumptions need to be put aside and attention needs to be paid.

Here’s some of what happens.

We might think we already know what someone is about to say to us. It gets said and if we’re lucky, we hear it or we tuck it away to be retrieved when needed. But we usually just get busy and excited rehearsing in our minds what we want to say in response. The result is that we don’t even really hear what’s being said. So many things are competing inside around our heads when, alternatively, we could relax into just simply listening. Accommodating those distractions damages our listening skills and our ability to hear. We end up missing precious moments and material.

Not only that.

When we aren’t listening, we are disabling our relationships.

Because good relationships require an open exchange of communication. Listening creatively and without bias improves relationships with customers, clients, friends, partners, family and strangers. It helps us work together better.

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What is creativity if not maintaining an open mind, making something new out of the (possibly) familiar? Listening for inspiration, possibility, opportunity.

Making a conscious effort to switch it up, surprise ourselves and build a fresh openness to how we listen might keep us from being stuck treading water while we bide time, bored and dissatisfied. It’s so much more interesting to allow ourselves the “luxury” and the discipline of listening well. And it will enable better relationships.

Clear your mind of the clutter when someone is speaking to you. Pay attention. Practice hearing in a way that feels different and fresh.

Think of it this way. Listening will help your business and even your business website.

Every single time we meet someone new we begin again.

There’s a brand new opportunity with each conversation we have.

In business, the ability to listen well, creatively and openly will make a huge difference in your success or failure. This is completely relevant to website design and web development which, in so many ways is about an ability to listen. Every business or non-profit entity needs to be listening carefully to the people they engage with. This ability will translate to the content that will appear on your website and be apparent in your web presence.

A thoughtful website designer and developer has the ability to listen to you, the client. A good website has the ability to listen to its visitors: your clients, and customers.

How carefully and creatively do you listen?

Pre-remixed photo: Marek Szturc on Unsplash