Review by Booklist Review
For a world torn apart by wars, politics, and misunderstanding, longtime BBC media executive Kasriel has a plan: deep listening. Deep listening is "transformational" rather than "transactional," she writes. With standard listening, one aims for facts and information; deep listening is intended to be an interaction that will leave both sides feeling respected and understood. Deep listening is especially needed when speaker and listener disagree. Kasriel offers eight steps to perfecting this technique, including creating a safe space, tuning into your own thoughts, being present, and being curious. Listeners are also instructed to hold eye contact, keep silent, reflect back the speaker's thoughts, and dig more deeply into the issues. Most chapters conclude with a recap and a challenge to the reader. Kasriel shares her own successful and not-so-successful experiences in interviews with world figures as well as examples from her coaching sessions. She concludes with warnings about setting boundaries and not being drawn into others' stories. Kasriel's practical steps and insights are sure to prompt deeper and more thoughtful interactions.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
BBC journalist Kasriel debuts with a valuable guide to listening in a way that's "transformational" rather than transactional. Explaining that people tend to get in their own way by fidgeting, silently formulating a reply, or generally tuning in "only long enough to mentally sort what your speaker is saying into ready-prepared bins," she contends that such "performative" listening flattens conversational complexity and reduces the openness of one's interlocutor, who anticipates interruptions and has less time to formulate their thoughts. Kasriel outlines eight steps readers can take to become more active listeners, among them cultivating genuine curiosity, using silence to signal respect and give the speaker space to think, and "reflecting back" what one's conversation partner has conveyed. Listening in this way allows for collaborative interactions that expand perspectives and mental frameworks, "liberat us from being marooned in our small lives," she argues. Interweaving research from psychology, peacebuilding, management thinking, and philosophy with personal experience as a reporter in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Pretoria, South Africa, Kasriel makes a wise if occasionally idealistic case for listening as an underutilized tool for building relationships and bridging divides. It's an encouraging resource for fostering more productive interactions in a polarized world. (June)
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