Oscar Trimboli’s How to Listen

For this month’s media review, I’m recommending Oscar Trimboli’s How to Listen (web site -> available here), and Oscar being interviewed on Will Bachman’s podcast: Episode 522 of Unleashed (this podcast is full of great professional skills building interviews).

Strategic relevance: Listening is the secret strategic superpower many leaders under develop. According to Trimboli, despite leaders spending 83% of their day listening, only 2% have ever received training on how to listen effectively. Trimboli’s research reveals that most people only listen to 14% of what the speaker thinks and means, which explains why strategic conversations often miss the mark. His three traits of great listeners – curiosity, openness, and flexibility – are exactly what executive teams need to lift the dynamics of their strategic dialogue.

Best for: Any leader who facilitates strategic conversations or wants to unlock the full potential of their team discussions. Also essential for strategy consultants and anyone who needs to decode complex organisational dynamics.

Personal angle: In my executive experience, I often saw executives talking past each other. In my facilitation work, bringing in Trimboli’s work opens the door to deeper strategic insights that were always there but never heard. When teams learn to listen for possibility, they turn strategic tensions into creative fuel, are able to more fluidly shift into positions that are adjacent to their previously held views, and transform strategic sessions into breakthrough conversations.

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