Everyone’s Talking. Nobody’s Listening. | David Vandermolen | TEDxMacatawa

Anecdoche is the word for a conversation in which everyone talks and nobody listens. In this TEDxMacatawa talk, David VanderMolen draws on decades of teaching listening and on his own path to learning the skill. He outlines five behaviors that help people cut through the noise and argues that listening is a power skill rather than a soft one. VanderMolen is a Learning Sensei at Barry-Wehmiller, where he co-founded the company's university and built a leadership and listening curriculum taught in five languages to more than 14,000 people. He now leads Inspired 2 Change, a West Michigan change agency he founded.

• Why people struggle to truly listen
• Five behaviors that cut through the noise
• Listening as a learned, active leadership skill
• Background from Barry-Wehmiller's listening curriculum

There’s a word for a conversation where everyone talks and nobody listens: anecdoche. Drawing on decades of teaching listening and his own unlikely journey to learning it, David VanderMolen explains why we struggle to truly listen and walks through five behaviors that cut through the noise. Listening, he argues, isn’t a soft skill. It’s a power skill. Most leadership training teaches you how to command a room. David VanderMolen teaches you how to go quiet in one. As a Learning Sensei at Barry-Wehmiller, he co-founded the company’s university and created a leadership and listening curriculum taught in five languages worldwide, reaching over 14,000 people. It’s still being taught. He continues that work at Inspired 2 Change, the West Michigan change agency he founded, built on one idea: changed people change companies. He’s spent 35 years proving that listening—the skill everyone assumes is intuitive and passive—is learned, and it’s the most active thing a leader does. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx