THE TOOLKIT
Listening vs. Hearing: The Listening Model

One of the most common misconceptions about listening is that it is the same as hearing. However, this is not the case at all. Think of it this way. Can you hear without listening? Can you listen without hearing? The answers are yes and no, respectively. Hearing is part of listening, but listening is an active process that takes time and effort. Listening is difficult because it takes energy; whereas, hearing is merely an involuntary response to sound. Below are the six different components that make up listening. Every time you take the effort to listen, each step of this process occurs, but you usually don’t think about it.

STEP 1	Receive	You hear the message and get the stimuli. This is where the sound waves hit your eardrums, and you hear the actual sound of somebody’s voice.
STEP 2	Attend	You focus on the stimuli. This is where you select the messages that you are going to listen to. We can process information six times faster than we hear it, but we ignore most messages we receive.
STEP 3	Interpret	You attach some meaning to the messages you hear. This is where you attempt to make sense of the message. You begin to define it, so that you can understand it better.
STEP 4	Understand	You integrate the message into your own frame of reference. You try and make sense of the information that you’ve been given.
STEP 5	Evaluate	You judge the merits of the message. You decide whether or not the stimuli you’ve received is true or false, and you decide if it has any value to you personally.
STEP 6	Resolve	You decide what to do with the information. You figure out if you are going to respond to the message, file it away in the back of your mind, or choose to ignore it all together.