POOR LISTENING AND INSTANT INTERPRETATIONS

Poor listening can be portrayed in various ways or acts from a listener towards a
particular person who is talking and leading a conversation or meeting which could lead
to instant interpretations and vague presumptions. As we all aware, listening requires
great focus, patience and self-discipline to what another person has to say. Findings
show that there are very few people whom can be classified as good listeners and the
rest are just faking attention during neither lectures nor company meetings. Based on
above construction scenario, below are the consequences that might occur of poor
listening habits:

1. Low concentration from design teams and labours

This can be said to be true as it is possible to employ a number of design teams

and labours as this development project is huge. A large number of people in a
meeting area can affect one’s concentration level to focus of what the person in-
charge has to say. For instance, the contractor for this project conducts a
meeting with his employees and he will find it difficult to communicate with his
workers because the meeting area is uncomfortable to accommodate such a
number of people and the workers are not listening to him comfortably.

2. Low concentration resulted from physical, visual and auditory distractions

A suitable meeting area should also be taken to consideration in order to avoid

any possible distractions. As an example, for either long or brief site meeting, the
persons involve; Superintending Officer (S.O.), design team, contractors and
client should gather in a site office rather than having one in the construction
area. This is because, the construction area may have a moving crane and will
eventually disturbs listeners’ visuals and auditory. This condition will also lead to
vague presumptions, as the particular listener does not get to pay attention
caused by inadequate volume from S.O.
 3. Low concentration because of lack of interest or that particular person does not
involve with subject matter being discussed

A lack of listening interest among listeners might occur to uninvolved parties and
excessive talking by the person who is doing the speech or leading a
conversation. Example on the property development project, the Client conducts
a meeting with all professionals and begins to briefly talk on building designs with
the particular Architect while the Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) Engineer might
experience a lack of listening interest because he is not involved within subject
matter. Other than that, as for example, when the Client talks more than
necessary during a meeting, the other parties in the same room would feel less
interested and will eventually hesitate to start communicating.

Along with the examples above, mentioned below are the approaches to overcome poor
listening habits that could lead to instant interpretations and vague presumptions.

1. Whenever the construction team would plan to have meet ups, it is necessary to
choose a proper meeting area that can accommodate and give convenience to
the number of members involve. If the number of people involve is huge, they
should go to a big meeting room with a good PA system and have their meeting
there. Or otherwise, the meeting should be held for one department at a time.

2. To communicate clear message, the S.O. should held the meeting with design
team, contractors and client in the site office to avoid physical, mental, visual and
auditory distractions. A closed meeting area can help improve communication as
the speaker can maintain eye contact with listeners, ensure the members’
physical comfort and avoid unnecessary visual and auditory distractions as per
mentioned.

3. For excessive talking by the speaker that could lead to lack of interest and
interactions, the Client should practice self-control by being brief while propound
his ideas to reduce meeting period and observe his listeners’ reactions. He
should then test the effectiveness of the communication process by having a
discussion and receiving continuous feedbacks from them.
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