When you were a child, did you play the telephone game? It’s a fun game that doesn’t require any props or technology. Children get in a circle. One whispers a message to the person next to them. That child whispers what they heard to the person next to them. Each child whispers what they hear to the child next to them until the message makes it completely around the circle.
Children are not the best whisperers, so the message usually changes dramatically before it arrives at the last person in the circle. The telephone game is a simple game with a simple goal: Listen well.
Leaders are often called upon to cast vision and encourage teams. We are rewarded for how well we communicate with people, but how well do we hear what people are saying to us? As the telephone game teaches us, listening is more than passively receiving information. Listening is a dynamic activity that involves paying careful attention to what is being said — and good listeners learn to pay attention to what’s unsaid.
When congregations take the time to listen to their neighbors, they can discover the community’s true concerns and hopes instead of offering solutions to problems that don’t exist. When leaders take the time to listen deeply to staff, stakeholders and volunteers, they learn more about what the organization needs to do than they could ever discern on their own. This kind of listening takes time, but the cost of not listening is often more than we can afford.
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