Global Listening: The Challenge of the Mixed Message

Global Listening: The Challenge of the Mixed Message

Global listening1 is a contextualized or multimodal approach. It involves being attuned to the totality of verbal and nonverbal inputs. Let’s consider how the mixed message can derail otherwise effective listening, an illustration meant as a small contribution to the field of listening. Take Box 12 by way of illustration:This person a distraught loner smiles to you­­–whether an HR professional, health care provider, social worker, counselor, colleague or close friend–as he says: “My whole life I didn’t know I existed.”