Self-paced course

Listening Deeply

Practical methods for hearing how visitors think — listening sessions you can run yourself, and ways of reading what they surface.

Structure
4 parts · 50 lessons
Video
46 of 50 lessons

What you’ll be able to do

  • Open a session with a question that gets past the prepared answer
  • Keep a conversation moving without steering where it goes
  • Hear the difference between what someone did and what they were thinking
  • Work out how many sessions a question actually needs

The lessons

Part 1: Build Awareness

  1. 1.1 Why Listening Deeply MattersIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  2. 1.2 Understanding Purpose: Deepening Our Progress-Space PerspectiveIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  3. 1.3 Thinking Styles: A New Lens for Understanding Museum AudiencesIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  4. 1.4 Preoccupied Listening: Understanding Our Default ModeIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  5. 1.5 Deep Listening: Moving Beyond Preoccupied EngagementIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  6. 1.6 Listening Deeply Frees YouIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  7. 1.7 Rethinking “Listening” in Museum PracticeIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  8. 1.8 Assumptions or Empathy: Moving Beyond Surface UnderstandingIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  9. 1.9 Topics, Concepts, LayersIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  10. 1.10 Understanding Interior Cognition: The Key to Meaningful Community InsightsIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  11. 1.11 Getting Past Expression (Why Preferences and Opinions Aren't Enough)Includes videoIncludes handouts
  12. End of Part 1

Part 2: Listening Session Techniques

  1. 2.1 Starting a Listening SessionIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  2. 2.2 The Germinal Question: Starting Your Listening JourneyIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  3. 2.3 How a Listening Session FlowsIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  4. 2.4 Using “Pull Tabs” to Access Interior CognitionIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  5. 2.5 Ask: What Went Through Your MindIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  6. 2.6 Ask: More About ThatIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  7. 2.7 Ask: Fill in the BlankIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  8. 2.8 Understanding and Using Reflection TechniquesIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  9. 2.9 Beyond the 5 Whys: More Effective Approaches to UnderstandingIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  10. 2.10 Technique: Pinning to Place and TimeIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  11. 2.11 Clarity: Find the RootsIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  12. 2.12 Clarity: Passive Into ActiveIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  13. 2.13 Deep Listening: Common Pitfalls to AvoidIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  14. End of Part 2

Part 3: Transitions and Safe Space

  1. 3.1 Shifting TopicsIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  2. 3.2 Instances of the Purpose (Goal)Includes videoIncludes handouts
  3. 3.3 Ending a SessionIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  4. 3.4 Pay Rapt Attention AfterIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  5. 3.5 Safe Space and TrustIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  6. 3.6 Host a Safe Space: Recognize the MoodIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  7. 3.7 Host a Safe Space: Show You Are ListeningIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  8. 3.8 Host a Safe Space: Avoid JudgingIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  9. 3.9 Host a Safe Space: Bring Warm PersonalityIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  10. 3.10 Signals of Fading SafetyIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  11. 3.11 Exit an Unsafe SessionIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  12. End of Part 3

Part 4: Handling Complexity

  1. 4.1 Self CareIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  2. 4.2 Managing Triggers and Thresholds in Museum ResearchIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  3. 4.3 Sensitive ContextsIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  4. 4.4 Fabrications and LiesIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  5. 4.5 Complaints and ObjectionsIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  6. 4.6 Generalizations and HabitsIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  7. 4.7 Derailing and RecoveryIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  8. 4.8 Managing Technical DifficultiesIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  9. 4.9 Planting the Seeds of Deep Listening in Your OrganizationIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  10. 4.10 Preview: Data SynthesisIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  11. 4.11 Preview: Opportunity MapsIncludes videoIncludes handouts
  12. End of Part 4

The method is Indi Young’s, developed over two decades of qualitative research practice. The examples here are rebuilt for museum work.

Everything in Concepts & Summaries and Cultivating Patterns assumes you have recordings from sessions like these.

Program participants · 3