Chances are, if you are a helping professional right now, you are wicked busy. (Really, our whole culture is busy, busy, busy.)
Stopping the rush and truly listening is hard to do.
I hear from learners new to Motivational Interviewing, “But this takes TIME, I don’t have TIME to do this.” And it does take time to slow down, truly listen, reflect client statements, elicit their thoughts and motivations.
The irony is, the better at MI you get, the more time you realize it saves you.
- You engage more rapidly with clients
- Focus the conversation better
- Bring clients’ motivation for change to the forefront (and save yourself time and energy by convincing them to change!)
- Create more effective change plans.
So you save time on the back end by investing time & truly listening on the front end.
So what does it mean to really listen?
Listening is not just waiting to respond, waiting for our turn to say what we want to say.
It is not listening in order to share your opinions, stories or advice. Listening is not ‘marshaling the cannons’ to strengthen your argument.
Listening is hearing what they are saying in order to give it back. It’s attempting to view the situation as best you can from their perspective, and reflect that back.
Listening helps their understanding- and ours- of what they mean.
Listening requires really tuning in to the other person. And it might feel like you are slowing down.
But…
“If you act like you have 15 minutes, it will take all day. Act like you’ve got all day, and it will take 15 minutes.” -Monty Roberts
If you want to hear more on this topic, here is the link to the Motivational Interviewing and Beyond podcast episode on this topic!
Motivational Interviewing Tip of the Week: What do you need to slow down the rush in your mind? How can you set aside all of your to-do’s and agenda and practice truly listening, for just a few minutes? Notice the impact to the conversation, and let us know, is it saving you time in the end??
