Communication - Questions, Answers and Listening Skills
  • Sheri Greenwell
    340
    I just came across this article on LinkedIn and it got me thinking:
    https://hbr.org/2015/06/how-to-know-if-you-talk-too-much?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social

    In many situations, the H&S Manager / Advisor is seen as the subject matter expert, which can lead to the temptation to do too much of the talking. Then we walk away without the desired level of understanding and engagement and blame the other person for it. Could a little more self-awareness help our cause?

    In my own training in neuroscience and learning and development, we were taught that the person asking questions actually controls the conversation, rather than the person giving the answers. Could we possibly benefit from learning to ask better questions?

    When we know the end 'destination' - where we need to end up in terms of understanding and engagement, the most powerful and most effective approach we can take is to ask the right questions to facilitate for the other person to arrive at that place and, having found and articulated those answers from within their own neurology, they will have a much deeper level of engagement and agreement than if we pushed that information at them from the outside.

    Isn't that level of ownership what we are all aiming for?
    Sheri Greenwell Options
  • Chris Hyndman
    71
    An underrated and often overlooked measure of competency is knowing the limits of our capabilities and expertise.

    In my experience there are very few Safety Advisors/Managers who have the perfect balance of practical knowledge to go along with the knowledge they have on the legal requirements for the activity, equipment etc.

    A conversational tool I once coordinated prompted managers to get up from behind the desk and go and have conversations with shop floor workers to discuss the tasks they were carrying out at that time. The conversation could go anywhere but must include questions on "what's the worst thing that can happen?", followed by, "What stops the worst thing from happening?".

    The initiative lived or died by the level of genuine engagement by the manager who was there to facilitate the conversation. If they were talking more than the guy on the shop floor, then they were doing it all wrong.
    Chris Hyndman Options
  • EmmaB
    13
    I completely agree, as an auditor you're trained to ask open questions and follow the trail of answers, root cause analysis requires the same skill. However, it's not as easy as it sounds and responding to the answer you get rather than the answer you expect requires concentration and active listening, and that needs practice. As a H&S manager, you need to be able to get personnel to ask and answer their own questions, facilitating realisation and the best solution, rather than dictating the answer without recourse to the context of the situation. That's difficult to do...
    EmmaB Options
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