In reading author Celeste Headlee’s book We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter, I marked up, underlined, highlighted and starred passages throughout the entire book. It’s been an incredible resource for my personal and professional growth. The final chapter (simply entitled ‘Listen!’) contains particularly helpful insights that relate to today’s guest and listening’s role in being creatively strategic. On page 217, Celeste says this: “It’s not easy to break t

One of the resources that encouraged my deep dive into listening is called You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters by journalist Kate Murphy. Her conversational tone in communicating deeply-researched information makes it easy to listen to (so to speak). In Chapter 7, Kate Murphy explains listening to views that oppose your own. She summarizes the chapter on page 88 this way: “To listen does not mean, or even imply, that you agree with someone. It simply

In January 2018, our family was looking to adopt a dog. Our previous family dog (a Shetland Sheepdog named Molly) left the world the previous November. We looked around at a number of adoption sites online to find a dog that would fit into our family. After searching and searching we came across Osa, a dog who had just been relocated to Canada from Mexico by a rescue agency. She was just over one year old, about 30 pounds and looked a bit like a cross between a German Shepher

Today’s guest has a very interesting life story. Here’s the abridged version: Drew Marshall was adopted, grew up in a funeral home, dropped out of school in Grade 9 and ran away to California to be a wrangler. He traveled around North America volunteering for charities and tried to be a firefighter and a rodeo cowboy. Drew was a stay at home dad, he’s worked a little in film and TV, became a Pastor in Australia, studied standup comedy and improv at Second City Toronto… and so

The ways we show we’re actively listening can differ from person-to-person, group-to-group, culture-to-culture. A few months ago I came across a post by the author Priya Parker who wrote the book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters. She introduced me to a term in communication and listening called ‘cooperative overlapping’. It started with her reposting NPR journalist Sam Sander’s content on December 8, 2021. Sam shared an email he got from a listener, along

Can listening to music make us more creative? Some sources point to ‘yes’, others to point to ‘no’. In a fascinating 2019 article by TIME entitled ‘Does Listening to Music Stimulate Creative Thinking or Stifle It?’, author Markham Heid shares the results of a series of studies, the findings of which point to both yes and no. For example, a 2019 study published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology found that listening to (familiar or unfamiliar, vocal or instrumental) m