Distracted Listeners Discussion

Communication problems can often surface when barriers or “blocks” to listening occur, whereby the intended listener may be:

a.) Taking a mental holiday: The person is daydreaming or focused on thoughts that have nothing to do with the current conversation. 

b.) Judging: The person is focused on your clothing, tone of voice, posture, or hair style and is ignoring the conversation. 

c.) Rehearsing: The person is busy thinking about how to respond to your comments and is ignoring what you are currently saying.

How have you felt when you were on the receiving end of distracted listeners? Reflecting upon this week’s readings & web links, what sort of things might you be able to say or do to improve communication when distraction occurs? 

While interacting with distracted listeners, there can be various issues which can cause deviance from the topic. In order to improve communication when distraction occurs, it is important to improve the process of interaction and voicing opinions of the listeners. Voice modulation and ensuring that the content is credible is necessary. Also, the aspect of being open to healthy criticism is an important part of identification of the reasons for distraction. This can also be achieved by effective feedback. Topics of interests of the audience and recreation can be enabled to prevent the onset of distraction