Jana Eggers - Listen: Not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
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Listening is Hard
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Startupfest 2014 - "You chose to start a company (or embark on an endeavor). You are passionate about your idea. But often this same passion makes us deaf. We hear feedback, but don’t listen. We miss opportunities to make our product and company better and sometimes we miss the opportunity to succeed. Your ability to listen to information you are hearing is critical to building a company (or project or product) to last. That said, it is hard. Hard to hear things as they are, not as we are. But as JFK said regarding the US choice to go to the moon “…that goal [in our case listening] will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills.” My goal with this talk is to give you 5 tips and techniques to take your hearing to listening; your listening to learning; your learning to winning. Why should you listen to me? I’m a start-up person that’s been lucky enough to have a number of battle wounds and wins to share from helping build companies and ideas with some amazing teams: PTCG (logistics software, sold to American Airlines); Lycos (went public); Apps.com (online applications, sold to Intuit); Spreadshirt (ecommerce, 3x growth in 4 yrs) and Basis Technology (internationalization, re-positioned responding to market conditions); and Intuit’s Innovation Lab (founder) and Quickbase ($1mm to $10mm in 3.5 yrs). My biggest learning is that listening is the most critical and most underused tool that we have."
Transcript of Jana Eggers - Listen: Not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
Listening is Hard
How bad is our listening problem?
• 2.5% correct for listeners• 25% retention @ 48h• My estimate: 5-10%
“right”
Listening can save your life
http://blog.startupcompass.co:
• 90%+ fail• 74% due to
premature scaling
Listening #1 for discovery& validation & efficiency
Listening
• produces success in business (Covey, 1989)• minimizes the damaging aspects of
performance appraisals (Kluger & Nir, 2010)• increases sales (Drollinger, Comer, &
Warrington, 2006)• highly correlates with perception of
leadership (Allen, 2010; Bechler & Johnson, 1995; Kramer, 1997)• highly correlates with job-satisfactionLife is better
listening
Let’s build ear muscle
Before your visit
Human curiosity,the urge to know,
is a powerful force and is perhaps the
best secret weaponof all in the struggle to unravel the workings of
the natural world.
Aaron Krug
Exercise 2:2 ears, 1 mouth
You have2+ hours
and3 questions
Exercise #3: car sits
Exercise #4: the HONY
During the visit
Exercise #4: the HONY
Step 1: It isn’t the words, it’s the energyStep 2: Realize your approachStep 3: Explain your goalStep 4: Broad questions, slowly escalating
Exercise #5: pen beats keyboard
Exercise #6: cheetah
Anticipate the
speaker’s next point
Identify supporting elements
Exercise #7: boomerang
Clear off distractions
Find a visual cue
Play a game
Take a break
Exercise summary
1. Curiosity State: primed to learn2. 2 ears, 1 mouth (or ear jacks):
guidelines, not constraints3. Ear sits: clear your mind4. The HONY: set the stage5. Pen beats keyboard: write it
out6. Cheetah: be responsive7. Boomerang: bring your mind
back
Actually doing it
Where do I find the time?
How do I find customers?
