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Member-only story
Design and non-violent communication: how to listen
What if designers used non-violent communication tools to focus more on how to listen, empathise, and understand. Would that help when researching, designing, pitching, and presenting?
Listening before speaking
We were at a restaurant, booked only for us that night. There were four or five long tables, a dinner party organised by a business association I’m a member of. I was looking to the left, to the right and straight ahead. Everyone around me met my glance with pain and suffering in their eyes. We all looked down at our half-empty dinner plates. I shivered.
It wasn’t the food, the company or the setting that caused the pain, it was the speaker. Maybe you’ve been there at a meeting, a conference or possibly a wedding, and the speaker is not tuned in to the audience. The speaker does not know what the audience wants or needs to hear.
Maybe you recognise inappropriate jokes or get a topic explained to you as if you had no idea, even though you’re an expert. Or maybe no one has any idea what the speaker is on about. Other times it might be a very one-sided conversation where you don’t get a chance to open your mouth. You know it if you’ve been…