Learning & Leading With Habits of Mind

person is trying to represent. Ears operate at the speed of sound, which is
far slower than the speed of light the eyes take in. Generative listening is the
art of developing deeper silences in oneself, slowing the mind’s hearing to
the ears’ natural speed and hearing beneath the words to their meaning.
We s p e n d 5 5 p e r c e n t o f o u r l i v e s l i s t e ni n g , b u t i t i s o n e o f t h e l e a s t
taught skills in schools. We often say we are listening, but actually we are
rehearsing in our head what we are going to say when our partner is fin-
ished. Some students ridicule, laugh at, or put down other students’ ideas.
They interrupt, are unable to build upon, can’t consider the merits of, or
don’t operate on another person’s ideas.
We w a n t s t u d e n t s t o l e a r n t o d e v o t e t h ei r m e n t a l e n e r g i e s t o a n o t h e r
person and to invest themselves in their partner’s ideas. We want students
to learn to hold in abeyance their own values, judgments, opinions, and
prejudices so they can listen to and entertain another person’s thoughts.
This is a complex skill requiring the ability to monitor one’s own thoughts
while at the same time attending to a partner’s words. Listening in this
way does not mean we can’t disagree with someone. Good listeners try to
understand what other people are saying. In the end, they may disagree
sharply, but because they have truly listened, they know exactly the nature
of the disagreement.

Thinking Flexibly

Of all forms of mental activity, the most difficult to induce even in

the minds of the young, who may be presumed not to have lost

their flexibility, is the art of handling the same bundle of data as

before, but placing them in a new system of relations with one

another by giving them a different framework, all of which virtually

means putting on a different kind of thinking-cap for the moment.

It is easy to teach anybody a new fact....but it needs light from

Describing the Habits of Mind 21