Continuous Improvement: Listening to Learn

Contributed by Angela Knobloch, FST Change Management & Continuous Improvement Workstream Lead

How might listening be foundational for continuous improvement? Consider these levels of listening:

Level 0: Hearing to respond (not listening!)

Level 1: Listening for usefulness of information for self

Level 2: Listening to understand, gain empathy, and learn

In order to continuously improve, it’s critical to engage with others to better understand their challenges, as well as ideas to make things better. Level 2 listening, which requires concentrated effort and intention, becomes foundational. This allows us to truly understand the extent of the pain in a process, see what the current state actually looks like end to end, and gather feedback to keep the CI cycle going!

Challenge yourself this week to improve your listening. The following two acronyms might be helpful to remember!

WAIT = Why am I talking?

WAIST = Why am I STILL talking?

Check out more from Angela on this topic on Finance Matters!