Leveraging Listening Routines to Engage Adult Learners

Once in a while, a book comes along and I am able to get so many powerful messages from it. A book that has any two pages that I could just take in that information, reflect on it and design how to put it into action. Shane Safir’s The Listening Leader is no exception.

Chapter 10 is about leveraging listening routines and it is so timely for me. As a K-12 literacy coach and curriculum facilitator, I design many meetings throughout a year. In my past 6 six years as an instructional coach, I have improved on my meeting design. However, I still encounter some frustrations when designing meetings. I don’t quite have the process perfected to be sure we capitalize on that time--to honor the time the teachers give to us, to get the most bang for our buck, and to build relationships with teachers through that meeting.

Safir shares what she terms “The Experiential Learning Cycle” when designing meetings. This is what I was waiting for to take my meetings to another level.

When designing meetings, I know it is so important to know your personality and the personality of those at the meeting and even design the meeting to adjust for those factors. I am proactive about this because I can relate to this line from Safir’s book:

As a principal, I often planned meetings that dove headfirst into what I perceived to be “the real work”--data analysis, curriculum planning, or whatever was on tap. I’ve since learned the importance of warming up the room so that people feel relaxed and connected enough to do whatever “the work” is.

This was me, without a doubt, at a point earlier in my leadership. I was young and didn’t quite get it yet. I didn’t yet grasp that yes, the work matters; it is why we are here, but we are also here for the human connection, to build ourselves as a team, as a group of people on a common mission and that we have opportunities beyond the work.

The Experiential Learning Cycle outlines four steps to help us go beyond just the work: To honor our humanity, our needs as individuals, and our group of people.

Those steps are as follows:

Step 1: Affective Routines

Connect participants to the feeling dimension of learning and to one another; allow for the release of pent-up emotions.

Safir shares that affective routines promote listening, reflection and empathy across differences. Is that not exactly what we need in our workplace? In our society? How powerful is it to know that the very things that frustrate us in our society today--the way we sometimes interact with each other so negatively could begin to change in our meeting settings and design? Our work is not just about the content.

And it makes the meeting more productive because, as Safir states, “If I don’t make time for these transitions, I find myself managing an unproductive group dynamic as people struggle to suppress their emotions.”

Step 2: Imaginal Routines

Tap into participants’ preexisting knowledge, intuition, and/or creativity; invite multiple ways of seeing an issue. This often involves movement and multisensory inputs.

This is about getting your team to dream, which excites me immensely. It’s a strength of mine to dream about what things could be, the impact that we could make as educators and I worry that we sometimes get bogged down in the day-to-day tasks and expectations and forget to dream, to envision the possibilities.

We might think that we don’t have time to dream with our long-to do lists. I say, how do we not have time to dream? Aren’t our kids and our work worth that time investment? Are those things on our to-do list really more important than envisioning the future?

Step 3: Conceptual Routines

This involves learning, discussing, and reflecting on important content or ideas.

Affective and imaginal routines, as Safir shares, “till the below-the-green-line soil of identity, relationship and information.” Conceptual routines engage participants in learning and reflecting on key ideas. These could be things such as literacy, math, or social-emotional development.

A key here is to discern what your team needs to explore and what needs to be set aside. I love this point from Safir as it is always at the forefront of my mind. Where is my team’s knowledge? What do they need right now? How much is too much?

A powerful line from Safir that speaks to me is this: "Remember, when watering the brain for deep roots, less is more, and a narrow focus yields deeper learning."

Step 4: Practical Routines

This involves learning by doing, producing, or practicing.

This step gives your team time and authority to plan, practice and implement. This is so valuable. Why go through this process and not allow for implementation discussions? It’s important to create an atmosphere of experimentation and low stakes. This is also where I’ve grown in my leadership. To allow professionals to grow, sometimes we need to take a step back and let them flourish and create the path to success that works for them, not a preconceived path we have created in our hands. They are the ones implementing so let’s get out of their way and let them implement. With support and guidance from us, yes, but not us driving their bus (or else it becomes about us).

Closing thoughts

This book by Shane Safir is so powerful. One word is always at the forefront as I read and reflect on the ideas and that is intentionality. Our work is so important. We impact kids. We impact teachers. We impact organizations. And, we impact society. It is worthy of our time to slow down, be intentional and design our work by being a listening leader, honoring our humanity and dreaming for the future.

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