2/2014 http://www.business-spotlight.de 33In this training plan, you will find suggestions on how to structure your learning to improve your listening skills. We
have divided the activities into five weekly blocks, each of which includes an exercise and two tasks based on Bob
Dignen’s ten top tips. You can adapt the timing of the plan to suit your own schedule.WEEK 1 Exercise:Read the article on
pages 28–32, paying particular
attention to the first two tips. Make
a note of any unfamiliar words and
create a list of useful phrases.
Write down the listening strategies
that you already use. nnTask 1:Make a note of situations in which you’ve misunderstood col-
leagues. What did you misunderstand? Was it information or an emotion
(for example, did you feel criticized even though that wasn’t intended)?Task 2:During lunch, ask questions that enable other people to talk about
things that they are good at or interested in.Exercise: Do the language
exercises in Business Spotlight
plus (pp. 8–9). Reread the third
and fourth tips in the article on
pages 28–32. nnplus Task 3:The next time you meet a new person, try to discover three things
that you have in common during the first five minutes. This could be some-
thing you agree about or something you both like or have experienced.Task 4:In your next meeting, ask questions so that the other person can
tell you something interesting that you can learn from, either for your per-
sonal life or for work.WEEK 2WEEK 3WEEK 4WEEK 5Exercise: Do the exercises
on listening on Business Spotlight
Audio(tracks 6–10). Reread the
fifth and sixth tips in the article on
pages 28–32. nnTask 5:In your next discussion, listen carefully to the adjectives and ad-
verbs that people use in their messages, for example, “It’s an important
topic” or “We need to do this quickly”. Clarify these words with questions
(“What do you mean by ‘important’/‘quickly’?”) and encourage others to
give you more information.Task 6:In meetings, explicitly signal your appreciation of what other peo-
ple are saying, for example, by replying, “Yes, that point is important
because...”.Week Exercise Tasks Done
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Exercise: Watch the three-
minute listening skills video from
the Business with Bob series at
http://www.business-spotlight.de/listen
Pay attention to Bob’s body lan-
guage. Then, reread the seventh
and eighth tips in the article on
pages 28–32. nnwww Task 7:Test your ability to empathize and read non-verbal cues by check-
ing from time to time with comments such as, “You seem to be happy/
irritated/concerned/unsure about this”.Task 8:During your next meeting, concentrate hard on managing your own
body language to communicate clearly to the speaker that you are listen-
ing and that you find their message important. You can do this, for exam-
ple, by maintaining eye contact, nodding or leaning forward on the table
in the direction of the speaker.nn
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Exercise:Reread the article on
pages 28–32, paying particular
attention to the ninth and tenth
tips. Make a note of the strategies
and phrases you have used suc-
cessfully in the past few weeks.
Write down some new things you
could do to improve your listening
skills. nnTask 9:Monitor your level of attention when someone is talking to you. No-
tice what happens in your head: do you disagree, do you become impatient,
do you start thinking about something else? Every time you notice that your
concentration is dropping, re-engage by listening more carefully or asking
a question.Task 10:Try to avoid disagreeing with what someone else says, even when
you really do disagree! Rather than responding with “Yes, but...”, try to
focus on something positive. For example, you can introduce a new per-
spective by saying, “Yes, just to add to what you said, I think that...”.nn
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TRAINING PLAN BUSINESS SKILLSiStock33 Trainingplan 2_14_MD 17.01.14 12:10 Seite 33