THE LISTENING PROJECT
The Listening World project was created as a collaboration by the students of Supercoach Academy 2023. It was inspired by the Czech Listens Project.
How it began
The Czech Republic Is Listening project was born in August of 2021. Our first idea was to organize a conference. We sold only 4 tickets because we underestimated promotion and we offered to teach people to listen. They didn’t want it.
People believe that they themselves can listen, but we should teach others to listen...
The new motto appeared: "Come and experience what it's like when someone really listens to you." This promise required a new form. A 3-hour workshop for a group of 10 people was created.
The first ever workshop took place in Kutná Hora.15 people came. At the end of the Listening to others workshop, the question came up, how could we listen to ourselves? The group agreed to meet again and the topic would be: Who I really am. More and more workshops followed with diferent topics: listening to creativity, money... A community of people from the neighborhood began to form, which meet and support each other.
At the very first workshop, one of the participants, who was visiting friends, wished to have a workshop in his town as well ... This is how the basic form of the "The City Listens" workshop was created.
A listening workshop was held 79x until June 2023 in Czech Republic and started in Slovak republic and 1 experiment in Hungary.
We wanted teach people how to listen to others, but we learned to listen to the wisdom, Mind, universe inteligence... We have learned to listen with the heart.
4 Expected benefits of the listening project:
To become a catalyst of of the Czech Republic listens project and spread it to the whole world.
And thanks to this:
To spread awareness of simplicity and impact of deep listening, through to the whole world.
To help 3P newcomers to organize a workshop based on the Czech experience and in the process bring them to their own wisdom that they do not need a manual...
Letting ourselves be guided by our collective wisdom, enjoying listening to each other and creating with curiosity where it takes us.
Support the creation of local communities.
Preparation of the project
June 2023, London
After our first small intensive group meeting, Kate, Jean and Sara spoke in London about the Czech Listens Project. They liked the simplicity of translating the Czech manual into different languages and making it available for anyone to download. On May 5 a WhatsApp group was set up for the Supercoach Academy group to collaborate..
September 2023, 1. meeting in Toronto
We had our first meeting, we agreed on the Listening project. I wanted to translate the manual for the organizers into all languages and try to implement the workshop in different countries according to the manual. We started meeting regularly once a week. We invited Karolina to the team.
September 2023: Form of project
During September we were thinking about how the "project" should look like in order to present it as finished in December. We may have been thinking more about getting it done than actually enjoying it.
We decided not to deal with the presentation. We'll just present what we have. And what we're going to have we don't know at this point.
September/October 2023
Kate shared basic materials - exercises, texts, FAQs. We N
made new decision: We will not translate the existing manual. We will get our own experience with the workshops and create the manual together.
Playing and exploring = PROJECT TIME
ONLINE DEMO WORKSHOP
We cant do workshops without experience from the workshop. We did a demo workshop ONLINE, which had 2 firsts. It was the first time it was held online and it was the first time for Kate to do a workshop in English.
Among the participants were our friends from Switzerland, who decided after the broadcast that they would also like to support this initiative.
September: Kates workshop
The whole day listening workshop: Tábor, Czech Republic
A full-day workshop dedicated to listening and exploring what it means to listen to happiness...
It was truly fascinating to see how the same Truth emerged in both projects. The original goal was to teach people to listen, and yet, we ended up discovering the art of listening to our own wisdom. Similarly, in the global project, the intention was to teach people to lead workshops, but we realized that it was more effective to guide them to their own wisdom.
October 25 - Lunch with Dr. Sara Joy
I was asked to speak at the last moment to my Women In Buisness group at lunch. We were in a busy loud restaurant not ideal for a listening workshop. I decided to bring a few listening exercises to the group anyways. The power of deep listening is so impactful that the women not only enjoyed listening but were deeply impacted from the experience.
My insight about listening after presenting the workshop is that human beings can listen deeply to others, to themselves and to the space of wisdom within us all. Even a short introduction to deep listening changed the lives of workshop participants and their clients. There’s an ease in listening that opens the door to many deeper soul to soul conversations.
Online workshop Jean & Pauline, November 8
Jean and Pauline joined forces to run a 90-minute virtual listening workshop. Participants included coaches and non-coaches took them through 2 different listening exercises, followed by sharing what they noticed about their experience as both speaker and listener in each exercise. A beautiful outcome of the workshop was a settling into presence and our own beingness. There was a deep sense of peace that was tangibly felt amongst the group.
When we listen from our soul, a gentle wisdom from within speaks to us and guides us. To listen is to know and love ourselves & others.
Even for those in the listening professions, the listening project opened people up to even more clarity and depth to their listening.
November 16 - Brians workshop
I had spoken with a client about the project and he asked if I could come out to his church men`s group to give them a session. They liked it so well and spoke with their wives. The wives asked for me to come give them a session as well.
The experience of watching the conversations (listening) grow deeper in meaning and depth was noticed by all and found to be amazing.
The growth of the community that is being built will look to help all that listen 👂
November 11, 2023 Elizabeth Stone
I decided to offer a workshop on Zoom video for my larger community. We ended up having 12 participants. It was fascinating to see both my own thinking and hear the insights of the group. I enjoyed the process and plan to repeat it using my lessons learned. Offering this is a no-brainer .
There is so much room be gained from a deeper exploration of listening, which, while it is something we do every day, is actually quite important and profound.
DAVID 1:1 Listening to the client and exploring together
The listening project and the exercises included gave me a great opportunity to work one on one with my client. We went through two exercises together and answered the questions that went with the exercise.
It definitely added to the depth of conversation we were able to have about listening and how the mind works. My client gained insights into how much her thoughts interrupt her thinking. It was a wow moment for her and I highly recommend these exercises with your clients.
The biggest insight to me after doing the listening project with my client was that how powerful listening can be. When you really take the time to see what is going on when listening it is fascinating what is going on in our own heads that prevents us from listening.
Michael & Kate Listening experiment
In January we are planning an online listening experiment of different language communities (czech, german, english speaking people). We want to listen together with people who do not understand each other explore what it is like to listen to another language, to listen to music, to listen without sound, without a camera, etc.
We originally wanted to hold it in December. But the opportunity arose that if we hold the experiment in January, the 3PDACH and 3PCZECH community can get involved and the experiment can be bigger. We like that.
I saw more about the impact of being listened to in ordinary life.
Project summary to date
Together with Kaja, with the support and involvement of Sara and Bryan, we decided to create a global organization, The Listening World, to continue the mission of this project.
We have talked about the listening project with many people. Within Genius Catalist, the CTI group was formed. Many of our classmates and former classmates began to rediscover the potential of listening. Sandy, Tony, Behrooz, Michaela and others are coming up with fantastic ideas... We are excited and curious to see what else will emerge.
A listening workshop was held 95x Czech Republic, 20x in Slovak republic, 1x Hungary, 2x in USA, 3x online worldwide. We are helping the DACH community to develop their own concept of listening workshops.
At the beginning we wanted to copy and translate the manual from Czech Listens - how to organize a workshop.
During the project we realized that we wanted to experience this. We discovered what it is like to listen to our own wisdom. We wanted to create the manual together.
In the end, we realized that we did want to give you no manual. We want to give you the space to discover your own wisdom.
We are here for anyone who wants to create a listening workshop. We offer conversation. We will talk until you find your own way.