We possess Language. We do not yet Communicate

Language is the pre-eminent adaptation of our species. Our remarkable capacity to compose complex messages has allowed us to cooperate and collaborate all the way to the hugely powerful yet precarious place we now inhabit as the most dominant species on the planet.

With this super-power there is really nothing we cannot do.

Yet, at times we fail to understand each other or feel completely heard. In many respects, we are still slaves to the evolutionary origins of speaking. We listen through filters of personal interpretation and value, and we speak to elevate our status. We bide our time in conversation waiting for others to stop talking so we can advance our own thought or view.

There is strong evidence to suggest that as social pressures on our species increased, our communication abilities expanded while our emotional aptitude lagged behind. Human emotions were forged in the Pleistocene when social groups were small and familiar. Today communication is a flurry of abstract expressions emanating from a roiling sea of strangers.

We are confronted with more adverse and disruptive emotions in a day than our ancestors faced in a year.

Now, more than ever, we need a way of communicating that quiets reactivity, deepens understanding and allows for the unknown or emergent to be revealed. Surprising new perspectives, creativity, and connections come from this new way of paying attention. 

The Cosentini Listening Project– examines experientially how we listen and how we can expand this capacity to see beyond words and into the world of another. This approach to language uses this exemplary skill of ours to its fullest potential. Conversations of this nature are not conducted to win, attain status or be right, they are engaged in for adventure, exploration and a profound expansion of understanding.  

For a conventional conversation you need logic, judgment and your opinions. To have a Listening Project conversation you only need the basics of play:  A willingness to imagine and pretend, make mistakes, and be surprised.

• Witness yours’ and others’ persistent conversational habits. 

• Develop the beginning of a skill to suspend these habits and discover the commitment, concern, and passion hidden in a speaker’s communication.

• Experience the world of someone else and practice responding from that understanding.