Communications Assignment Help-Listening Plan
104 Listening Assignment 1-2018 1
COMM 104: LISTENING PLAN
ASSIGNMENT
BIG IDEA
The goal of this assignment is to improve your listening experience and skill levels.
The general approach is to: spend some time reflecting on your listening behaviors and
choices; gather some feedback from a few trusted others about your listening behaviors; make
a plan for what you’d like to change; and track it for several weeks. At the end of the time
period, write a summary of the process and outcomes to submit for a grade.
PROCESS
1. Read the literature in the unit on listening.
2. Do any self-assessments on listening in the unit.
3. Get some peer/friend feedback on your
listening behaviors. You can use an existing “survey” (like the one you did on
yourself or find one on the web) or simply have a conversation. If you have a
conversation make some summary notes so you’ll have them when you write the
paper.
4. Reflect on what you have heard from others and the assessment results. What
are the patterns you see? What patterns are most prominent?
5. Set 2 to 4 goals to improve your listening.
6. Share your goals with someone you trust to give you constructive feedback. Confirm
that your goals meet the criteria. Double check that what you have planned is
reasonable to achieve.
7. Submit your goals to Dr. Bane by January 28, 2018. You should simply type them in
the text box provided on the assignment link in ecampus. No attachments are
necessary.
8. Track your progress until almost time to submit your paper.
9. Summarize your process and outcomes in a paper that is due April 8, 2018. See
details below.
Goal Writing
In order to know if you have improved, you have to count something. Something must be
measured. Measuring can only be done in Quality, Quantity, Cost or Time. Make sure when you
write your goal, you identify something you can measure and ensure it’s realistic to measure
this. For example, it’s not realistic to say you’ll make notes about listening after every
conversation. Instead, maybe after conversations with one person you note how many times
you stopped yourself from interrupting. Or could you daily rate yourself using a scale on your
overall listening capacity?
104 Listening Assignment 1-2018 2
To help you further grasp this idea, below are 2 links about writing effective goals.
http://trio.ucsd.edu/_files/staff_forms/SMART%20goal%20setting%20sheet
http://hrweb.mit.edu/performance-development/goal-setting-developmentalplanning/
smart-goals
Here is an example.
GOAL: Listening has been proven to be a crucial skill in management and leadership. I
want to continue to improve my leadership capabilities and my listening is kind of lousy.
To improve my listening, beginning January 28, using hash marks on paper I will track the
number of times I interrupt Sue, my coworker, during 1:1 conversations. For the first week
of this effort so I can get a baseline, I will track my interruptions without effort to change.
To facilitate the change in behavior thereafter, I will hold a silver dollar in my hand when
she is talking to remind myself that it is my turn to listen. By April 15, I will have decreased
the number of times I interrupt by 75% (using the baseline data as a reference point).
Here is why this goal fits the criteria.
Specific—The number of interruptions is a specific behavior in a specific form of conversation
with just one person.
Measureable—It’s measuring a quantity. The number of interruptions is a behavior that can
be counted. A baseline number derived from the first week’s data gives a reference point for
the decrease goal of 75%.
Achievable—75% does not ask for perfection. For this person, 75% is still a stretch because
this person has really bad habits.
Relevance–Listening is a big deal in leadership and this person claims he is a bad listener so
it’s definitely relevant!
Time Bound—There are deadline set so that there is time to allow opportunities for
improvement and to create the report at the end of the data-gathering period.
