Listening is Our Most Powerful Gift: The Art of Attention | TwoLine Studios
Recently, TwoLine’s founder – Heather Willems, had the privilege of leading an experiential session on "The Art of Listening" with The Value Web 🌈. The workshop was structured in a way that allowed for easy digestion of the content, with timely insights provided throughout.
Listening is a key component of constructive communication. More importantly, it is paramount to achieve a common understanding and boost empathy, which we are so much in need of. However, in this busy world, with so many things happening, it might be hard to listen. This is particularly true for artists who constantly have ideas and problem-solving skills occupying their minds. We have to remind ourselves to keep our ears always open. Graphic recorder Peter Durand shares with TwoLine:
Visual Thinking often overshadows the Art of Listening.
An illustration of the workshop The Art of Listening featuring different practices share by Heather Willems. Illustrated by TwoLine member Javier Navarro Arbe.
At the workshop, we delved into the distinction between hearing and listening, recognizing that our ears never truly close.
Hearing is a constant; sound passively reaches our ears, and we have the choice to filter it out or truly listen.
Listening, on the other hand, is an intentional act of attention, a gift of being in the presence, and an expression of compassion.
A spot illustration of a person focusing on being in the present and in commune with others. Illustrated by TwoLine member Javier Navarro Arbe.
In any relationship, active listening makes people feel seen and heard. It has the power to diffuse negative emotions, foster open-mindedness, and build trust as its foundation. Attention is the best gift you can give to the other person.
During our virtual session, we practiced:
Listening with Your Whole Body: Offering visibility and energetic attention.
Mirror Listening: Reflecting on the speaker's own words, summarizing, and confirming our understanding.
Removing Internal Distractions such as mental chatter, personal bias, listening to respond, and personal comfort.
Removing External Distractions such as cognitive overload, power dynamics, time urgency, and environmental distractions.
An illustration of two people practicing mirror listening by reflecting back the situations and asking questions. Illustrated by TwoLine member Javier Navarro Arbe.
A participant shared during the workshop:
We collect the dots and connect the dots.
That is exactly what we are doing and should all be doing. Through the Art of Listening, you can be more open-minded about new ideas, and build awareness around your relationships and emotions.
Participants shared their insights on the transformative impact of active listening, expressed deep gratitude for the experience, and even had personal breakthroughs through intentional conversations 🧘. The workshop improves not just the way the participants communicate but also how they can successfully share & align with others. We're always our own worst critics.
An illustration of the metaphor attention is the best gift. Illustrated by TwoLine member Javier Navarro Arbe.
Javier Navarro Arbe, one of the participants who’s also a design manager shares wholeheartedly:
For me, in terms of the workshop, I love the structure of it and how the path went through. I mean, how you passed everything, and how you were giving nuggets of information in there like they were very timely. So there was kind of a very organic process to it. And that was great. I also loved the breakdown, so it was mostly about the connection. And the fact that anything that you proposed, immediately, there was an action that we could execute what you were talking about. And for me, that was useful because mostly because you realize your prejudices, your limits, your own life, have you think well, yeah, I agree at least for them, but then it's like, maybe not so.
Tim Hamons, a visual strategist, went home and practiced the Art of Listening right away:
Reflecting on tonight's experience: While listening, I often notice an emerging question, momentarily distracting me from my partner. By consciously setting aside both the question and its thoughts, I can come back to being fully present 🧘 Implications of profound listening: Deeper presence yields our best thinking.
A heartfelt thank you to the Value Web Community, TwoLines’ exceptional clients, and fellow graphic facilitators.
At TwoLine Studios, we design immersive experiences, graphic facilitate and our founder, Heather Willems, coaches leaders to reflect on big ideas and put those ideas into action.