Importance of Active Listening: Analysis of Julian Treasure's Ted Talk

This paper analyses Julian Treasure's Ted Talk on the importance of active listening and strategies for practicing it. It highlights the decline in the art of listening and its impact on analytical skills. The paper also discusses personal realization and contradictions with beliefs.

Running head: HEALTH CARE
Health Care
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
HEALTH CARE
Video retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better#t-
12090
Introduction
The art of listening can never be confused with the art of hearing. The following paper
aims to analyse a Ted Talk video orated by Julian Treasure based on his personal opinion of
art of listening and referenced towards refining the analytical skills of an individual. The
TED Talk video mainly deals with active listening and its importance in daily life and tricks
which can be used to practice the art of active listening. The paper will initiate with
highlighting important points stated in the video followed by personal realization and its
subsequent contradictions with the philosophies of beliefs nurtured deep inside the mind.
Reasons behind selection of this video
According to Kawamichi et al. (2015), listening is a part of mental processing under
which the information that has been extracted through auditory impulses is processed through
the intellectual thinking skills. In relation to the same topic, Raniereet al. (2015) argued that
people are slowly losing their ability to listen. Approximately 60% of the communication
time must be indulged into active listening but it was found that within this 60%, people are
not listening attentively, what they are doing is hearing. Thus, the majority of the individuals
can retain only 25% of what they have heard during conversation (Kawamichi et al., 2015).
Extinction in the art of listening is making it difficult for the people to pay attention to subtle,
quite and an understated part hidden in the conversation. The reason behind the selection of
this video is, it provides a deep insight about how the loss art of listening can be gained back
against the backdrop of the present day jet age, where communication mainly occurs through
text messages or emails and people have less time in paying a heed to other people words.

2
HEALTH CARE
Important points highlighted in the video
Julian Treasure in his Ted Talk video highlighted the importance of listening and
strategies that can be used for active listening. Treasure also succinctly classifies the
difference between hearing and listening. He said, listening is a kind of pattern recognition
which is opposed to hearing. The concept highlighted by Treasure finds prominence in the
findings of Heald and Nusbaum (2014). Kolers (2014) stated that pattern recognition is a
crucial aspect of active listening and it helps to draw the relationship with the speech
perception and use of non-verbal auditory patterns. In his video, Treasure also stated that
conversation is guided by a range of different filters like language, culture, beliefs, attitudes
and values. People pay attention based on use and the presence of these filters. Treasure also
stated that listening means understanding and it assists in improving the analytical skills of a
person. In relation to listening, Figueroa (2014) argued that, listening is a thinking function
and requires proper analytical skills. Tyagi (2013) highlighted that hearing is an
indispensable part of active listening but majority of the people fail to practice this and the
information delivered by one person, fails to reach to a meaningful conclusion to others. This
can be explained by lack of focus. The focus is something that that can be practiced through
refining the skills of concentration. Attention increases focus and focus helps in active
listening.
Personal realization
From my personal understanding, I want to highlight that the facts and figures
highlighted by Treasure in his video holds significant prominence in the present day
perspective. At present, people are busy in broadcasting their personal achievement and this
is hampering the art of active listening. When they take break from advertising their own
skills, they dig inside their cell phones, either surfing social media or listening to music.

3
HEALTH CARE
During my participation in scientific seminars, I have noticed that people are pretending -they
are listening to the oration while the actually they are thinking of something else. I can say
this strongly before, after every 5 minutes they are both surfing their phones and talking with
others. An active listening involves thinking in deep and this should be done without
interruption. In his video, Treasure highlighted that with the introduction of the technology or
recording, the art of listening is gradually becoming extinct. I completely agree with this
statement. The avenue of recording the audio and now there is audio-visual recording, have
generated reluctance among the listeners. People feel that at present they can relax a bit and
record the seminar and after that as per the convenience, they will listen to the speech. This
moment of convenience never comes in their life. Moreover, listening live is something
different from listening recorded files which can be manipulated (Jacobs, 2014). Thus as a
whole I can deeply connect with the video of Treasure and second his opinion about the
importance of active listening.
Philosophies of Belief
Though I value the concept of listening, but I thing listening actively creates fatigue.
But my philosophy is hit hard by the concept proposed by Treasure. Treasure told listening
increases analytical skills. My thought process about active listening is mainly guided by the
findings of Hornsby (2013). Bodie et al. (2013) stated that for the normal populations who
have average concentration level, the act of active creates fatigue in them or headache. The
level of fatigue increases when this occurs admits a noisy environment. This is because, brain
is require to conduct backstage operations that helps in selective processing of specific
sounds and subsequent filtering of irrelevant sounds. However, Treasure proposed a
completely different concept as he says listening is a feelings o joy irrespective of the
cacophony of the surrounding environment.

4
HEALTH CARE
The message
The main message extracted from the video is importance of practising the art of
listening this is because, “active listening creates understanding”. Three approaches
proposed by Treasure for practising active listening observance of 3 minutes of silence each
day, listening to a mixer of music in order to study the difference in the tone of sounds and
enjoying the mundane sounds. It can be noted that importance of observance of silence can be
related with the importance of practicing meditation which helps in increasing the
concentration skills. Listening to different mixture of music also helps to increase the level of
concentration and practising listening skills under the cacophony.
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the practice of listening is
getting extinct gradually. The present human race is getting more involved in their personal
advertisements or is remaining pre-occupied with other activities. These activities hamper the
art of listening. Decline in the act of listening means decrease in the analytical skills of an
individual. Thus in the absence of the analytical skills, there is occurring a drop in the
intellect. Therefore, proper practice of active listening by increasing the strength of
meditation will be important in order to sustain the process of attentive hearing.

5
HEALTH CARE
References
Bodie, G. D., Gearhart, C. C., Denham, J. P., & Vickery, A. J. (2013). The temporal stability
and situational contingency of active-empathic listening. Western Journal of
Communication, 77(2), 113-138.
Figueroa, C. (2014). Developing practical/analytical skills through mindful classroom
simulations for “doing” leadership. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 20(1), 113-
129.
Heald, S. and Nusbaum, H.C., 2014. Speech perception as an active cognitive
process. Frontiers in systems neuroscience, 8, p.35.
Hornsby, B.W., 2013. The effects of hearing aid use on listening effort and mental fatigue
associated with sustained speech processing demands. Ear and Hearing, 34(5),
pp.523-534.
Jacobs, H. H. (2014). Active literacy across the curriculum: Strategies for reading, writing,
speaking, and listening. Routledge.
Kawamichi, H., Yoshihara, K., Sasaki, A. T., Sugawara, S. K., Tanabe, H. C., Shinohara,
R., ... & Sadato, N. (2015). Perceiving active listening activates the reward system
and improves the impression of relevant experiences. Social neuroscience, 10(1), 16-
26.
Kolers, P. A. (2014). A pattern-analyzing basis of recognition. Levels of processing in human
memory, 363-384.
Raniere, K.A., First Principles Inc, 2015. Device, system, and method for active listening.
U.S. Patent Application 14/174,986.

6
HEALTH CARE
TED Talk (2018). 5 Ways to Listen Better by Julian Treasure. Access date: 6th December
2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better#t-12090
Tyagi, B., 2013. Listening: An important skill and its various aspects. The Criterion An
International Journal in English, 12, pp.1-8.