Active Listening

Active listening is the practice of paying full attention to and absorbing what someone is saying so that the exchange between the listener and speaker is productive and fulfilling. It is an attempt to demonstrate unconditional acceptance and unbiased reflection.​

By practicing active listening, you will improve your ability to listen consciously, improve your communication, avoid misunderstandings and enjoy better relationships.​

Active listeners:​

• Pay Attention ​
• Show That You’re Listening ​
• Provide Feedback ​
• Defer Judgment
• Respond Appropriately.

Open-ended questions

Open-ended questions give respondents the freedom and space to answer in as much detail as they like using their own knowledge, opinion or feelings. Extra detail really helps to qualify and clarify their responses, yielding more information and insight for you. ​

Open-ended questions usually begin with words like ‘how’, ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘describe’. They invite a detailed answer and provide an opportunity for someone to reflect.

A good way to start an open-ended question could be ‘Tell me’ or ‘Describe’. This provides respondents with a question prompt and provides a space for people construct their own response​

A closed question is ‘are you happy with your experience?’​.

Changing that to an opened ended question, ‘how would you describe your experience?’  requires a more detailed response.​