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      • Course 1. Listening Deeply
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Course 1. Listening Deeply

1. Listening Deeply

    About this course

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    About this course

    Start date: please check later for next Live Course date

    Summary

    Listening deeply is a powerful skill. Most people don’t realize they are listening at the surface, so the experience doesn’t seem to shift anything. This course teaches depth. (The classes in this course are each 2.5 hours long.)

    Do you know how to get past the surface to listen at depth?

    Listening has so many applications: developing relationships, forming rapport, connecting with people, seeing new perspectives. While these may sound too mystical to apply in your org, any hope of improving support for people, teamwork, or leadership is rooted in being able to shape relationships. Listening is the foundation for inclusivity, new market opportunities, and powerful team efficiency. I make sure professionals have the skills to wield the empathetic mindset when they are feeling confronted by someone who has different values. If a professional has the awareness to recognize then they are reacting, judging, or being triggered, they can hit the mental pause button and decide what to do next.

    The empathetic mindset does not mean you have to feel warmth for another person. The words “understand” and “comprehend” do not mean “adopt” or “agree with.”

    It may seem counter-intuitive to take time to listen when you want to solve, but it’s foundational. In product & service design, listening deeply allows you to learn other people’s thinking and approaches to the purposes your organization intends to support. It is the path to discovering whole new markets and opportunities. To this point, listening deeply is the way to create a mental model diagram or thinking styles. These let you consider how well you are helping people achieve their purpose using an approach matched to them. Listening is the key.

    You will learn how to:

    • Identify the ways you already listen
    • Discern surface from depth when you are listening
    • Start a listening session & recognize when it’s over
    • Develop rapport & trust with the speaker
    • Get past the surface to depth
    • Prepare for formal research studies
    • Deal with uncooperative or aggressive speakers

    Homework:

    Expect homework to take about one hour a week. (Some people invest less time or more time, depending on their context.)

    • Homework #1: Build your awareness of how you currently listen in real work and life. Practice paying rapt attention.
    • Homework #2: Connect a person’s purpose to the reason for listening. Start a listening session based on a purpose.
    • Homework #3: Run at least one formal listening session. Develop rapport & trust, get the speaker to go deep, recognize when it goes out of scope, and recognize when the session is “done.”

    Who is this for?

    If you are a researcher, a listening session is very different than an interview. Learn how to let the participant direct the conversation and how to encourage the participant to uncover a trio of concept types that provide the richness of understanding you need in your data.

    If you are a leader or team member, listening deeply is how you build relationships, giving other people the gift of feeling heard. By understanding their guiding principles, you are able to collaborate more effectively, with less strife and misunderstanding.

    This course is a thorough review of the components of listening. It will change your life!

    PICK YOUR COURSE & PRICE

    Prerequisites

    • watch one of Indi’s latest recorded talks
    • listen to one of the latest Other Recordings

    Recommended reading

    • Chapter 4 in Practical Empathy
    • Essay – Tour Guide – An Analogy for Listening
    • Essay – When You Listen, What Are You Thinking?
    • Essay – Listening Deeply
    • Essay – Eavesdropping
    • Essay – Surprise Differences
    • Podcast – A Session On Empathy, Cognitive Bias, & Listening in an Overstimulated World on WeGetRealAF
    • Presentation Closing Keynote – Paying Better Attention to the Problem at Design for Digital
    • Presentation – Enabling Empathy at Creative Mornings
    • Book – Listening Well by William Miller (a therapy perspective)
    • Book – Realizing Empathy by Seung Chan Lim
    • Book – How to Talk so Little Kids Will Listen by Joanna Faber and Julie King
    A Listening Session is more than a research method. It's a practice that makes you notice how people speak and how you listen to them.
    – Raul - Aug-2019
    This course helped me to be more aware of my own judgements, assumptions, and allows me to filter in my mind, what I should say (or not say) before speaking so that I can be a better, deeper listener.
    – Pei Ling Chin - Aug-2019
    Prepare to reevaluate how you have been listening to people you want to learn from as you are preparing for - and executing on - creating experiences.
    – Lija Hogan - Oct-2020
    Listening sessions are a great way to learn skills doe strong techniques on developing empathy. Indi has written a book about listening sessions, which is great too! I highly recommend both!
    – anonymous - Oct-2018
    Although I watched the recordings, it was inspiring to listen to tips, watch live exercises among the people, and listen to questions about the topics. I feel like I know the people in each session.
    – Renato Caliari - Apr-2018
    The courses have a lot of information and provide good value for the time commitment.
    – David Bixby - Aug-2019
    Just do it! It is awesome! The content is academic and practical at the same time, and it pushed me out from my comfort zone.
    – Amyris Fernandez - Oct-2020
    Really great course with good interaction. Make sure you dont have anything booked during the 4 live classes. I missed a class and watched the backup recording once, which wasn't quite the same.
    – anonymous - Aug-2019
    There is no better person than Indi to teach you how to go beyond generalities with people and really understand their perspectives.
    – Sonja - Oct-2018
    Whether your purpose is to work through a challenge with a colleague or to deepen your understanding of people your company is supposed to serve, there is no better course.
    – Sonja - Oct-2018
    Stop thinking, start registering! You'll definitely learn things that you can directly use at your work.
    – anonymous - Aug-2019
    I attended the listening sessions in hope to improve how things are done at work, and I'm thoroughly surprised on how these skills apply to every aspect of my life.
    – anonymous - Oct-2018
    The Listening Session series was a joy to be part of. Indi was so accommodating and accessible, even via zoom, across the globe.
    – Sasha Abram - Oct-2018
    Be prepared to have your preconceptions challenged and your definition of research modified and expanded. But you'll emerge wanting to do problem space research and deep listening all the time.
    – Amy Silvers - Oct-2020
    It's important and beyond what most people in this industry do when they do research. It's an actual methodology to practice and improve upon. It's not just stenography.
    – Steve Grieshaber - Oct-2020
    If you really want to understand what listening is and a safe place to practice, take this course.
    – Francesca Barrientos - Aug-2019
    Definitely do it. It's excellent to improve your skillset in design and in life
    – Bibiana Nunes - Aug-2019
    Do it. It's incredibly useful regardless of your experience. Classes feel personal because the groups are small and there is plenty of opportunity for practical work to help you understand it better.
    – Debbie Sit - Oct-2018
    Listening sessions are unlike user interviews. It has more in common with ethnography or therapy. But that shouldn't scare you away. It's challenging and at the same time truly worthwhile.
    – Sonja - Oct-2018
    We can do with more empathy because so often we're loaded with our own assumptions in all the conversations we come to.
    – Pei Ling Chin - Aug-2019
    Unlike most online courses, Indi's classes are very in depth and she gives practical advice on its applications.
    – anonymous - Aug-2019
    Good use of time - active sessions and very worthwhile. The sessions are delivered well. Indi is an expert and its a great opportunity to learn.
    – Jane Cockburn - Oct-2018
    Practicing the lessons taught in the course is hard, but practice is important. It is so valuable considering how well I'm able to connect with people now.
    – anonymous - Oct-2018
    I already had read the books and some articles, so watching these sessions motivated me to practice and see what I can get done with the listening sessions.
    – Renato Caliari - Apr-2018
    Great course for learning how to connect at a deeper level with a person before conducting a formal user interview.
    – Susan B - Aug-2019
    Be sure to make enough time to see the recordings, which are each 2 hours in length. Plan to watch them twice to make sure everything is well understood.
    – Maria P. Arrilucea - Oct-2018
    You're gonna love it. The group format really helps. People bring interesting questions you'd never think of and Indi answers each of them. The discussions that follow are invaluable and rare online.
    – Raghav Agrawal - Oct-2018
    There is no other training like this for user researchers that want to learn how to listen, understand and empathize with people.
    – Maria P. Arrilucea - Oct-2018
    Consider a group discount to get training with other people in the company so you can discuss the sessions and practice listening homework together.
    – Maria P. Arrilucea - Oct-2018
    Don't expect that you'll magically be able to apply these techniques at your fast-paced workplace immediately. It will take a year for the skills to internalize, as Indi herself mentions.
    – Raghav Agrawal - Oct-2018
    The course is a great way to practice the skills you learn from the book. And you get real time feedback from Indi and everyone attending the course!
    – anonymous - Oct-2018
    You'll not feel rushed and left out. Indi makes sure every participant feels heard via the live exercises she does and homework review.
    – Raghav Agrawal - Oct-2018
    Everyone in Design especially should sign up - from writers to editors to researchers to designers to design leads - because we can all learn from listening deeper!
    – Pei Ling Chin - Aug-2019
    You'll learn really deep foundational kinds of research techniques and even get to practice them via the exercises and while talking to people in real life.
    – Raghav Agrawal - Oct-2018
    It was an absolute treat to have such an intimate and informative learning space. Just like the Listening Sessions themselves, Indi created a safe space for learning about each other and ourselves.
    – Sasha Abram - Oct-2018
    These skills help you connect better with other humans in every scenario.
    – Raul - Aug-2019

    How does it work?

    Duration

    4 classes of 2 hours each. The live version of a course takes about four weeks to complete.

    Time Zones

    Live courses are taught Wed 10:30am or Friday 5:30pm San Francisco time. here are two helpful tools: 1. Time zone converter 2. Explore your time zone

    Homework Review

    Students who enroll for the live version of the courses will have Indi review their homework.

    Pricing

    Several pricing tiers aim to support different budgets and currency rates.

    Enrollment options

    3 enrollment options give you the choice as to how to complete the course.

    Previous start dates

    28-Oct-20;31-Jul-19;10-Oct-18;6-Jun-18

    More courses

    6. Framing Your Study
    1. Listening Deeply
    2. Concepts & Summaries (analysis part one)
    Pricing & enrollment options

    Price & Enrollment Options

    For each course you can enroll in one of these three ways

    Live Online Classes

    Join a class of 25 or less participants, from around the globe. Classes are taught online live by Indi.

    • Live discussions & questions during classes
    • Choice of two class periods per week (Group A or Group B)
    • Partner for homework with others in your Group
    • Homework review of your work by Indi & assistant
    • Membership in Slack community
    • Access to recordings of the course
    • Recordings accessible for 3 months
    • Letter of Completion available
    • Counts toward problem space certification program

    Individual

    Regular$776
    Govt/Military/Non-Profit$582
    Out-of-Pocket$388
    Extreme Currency Exchange$80

    Pick your course & price

    Team

    If you have a team attending from one organization:

    3 people ~15%$660 each ($1980 total)
    4 people ~20%$621 each ($2484 total)
    5 people ~25%$582 each ($2910 total)
    6-10 people ~30%$543 each
    11-15 people ~35%$504 each
    16+ people ~40%$466 each

    Contact us for Team Purchase

    Follow-along Option

    If you cannot attend class, but still want to follow along with the latest course as it is taught, this is a great option for you.

    • Partner for homework with others who are also following-along
    • Some cheat sheets for self-review of homework
    • Membership in Slack community
    • Access to recordings of the currently underway live course
    • Recordings accessible for 6 weeks (motivation to finish!)
    • No letter of completion available
    • Does not count toward the problem space certification program

    Individual

    Regular/Out-of-Pocket$194
    Govt/Military/Non-Profit$145
    Extreme Currency Exchange$40

    Pick your course & price

    Archived Access

    If the course you are interested in is not coming up soon enough, consider the archived recording.

    • Last year’s course recordings
    • Some cheat sheets for self-review of homework
    • Membership in Slack community
    • Recordings accessible for 6 months
    • No letter of completion available
    • Does not count toward the problem space certification program

    Individual

    Regular/Out-of-Pocket$194
    Govt/Military/Non-profit$145
    Extreme Currency Exchange$40

    Pick your course & price

    Pricing Level Details

    Regular – When your organization will cover the cost, e.g. your boss is paying

    Government/Military/Non-profit – When a government, military, or non-profit organization is covering your education cost

    Out-of-Pocket – When you will NOT be reimbursed for the cost by anyone; also use this if you are a member of a union and your boss is not paying

    Extreme Currency Exchange – Not in the US? When your your purchasing power is at an extreme disadvantage with the US dollar, we have much bigger discounts. We want to include folks in Brazil, India, Ukraine, Russia, Malaysia, etc.

    PICK YOUR COURSE & PRICE
    Refund Policy

    Refunds are possible up until 2 days prior to your course start date.

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