Aug 12, 2019
Can you imagine a job where all you have to do is listen? Corine Jansen has been Chief Listening Officer for different organizations in the Netherlands and this is what she did--she listened. She listened to customers, she listened to patients, she listened to doctors...she listened. And the value of listening even surprised management.
Corine Jansen is a Certified Listening Professional and Certified Practitioner of ECHO Listening Intelligence. She is specialized in opening conversations with people who have a broad, non-directive invitation to speak. She is currently the founder and Chief Listening Officer of JoConnect, and the co-initiator of Nederland Luistert (Netherland Listens).
In this episode, Corine shares her personal story about how listening for survival as a young person changed to listening for transformation in organizations. She also shares the value of listening to customer’s stories and organizations that can transform both their relationships with their customers or patients in the health care system.
“What is very powerful in the skill of listening is that you don't need to have or give advice and that you don't need to have an opinion.”
– Corine Jansen
Show notes:
00:19 – Corine talks about her listening journey – when she started to notice its impact and what she learned as a young child about listening
09:57 – The turning point when she switched from survival listening to listening that transformations
15:45 – Sharing her experience as Chief Listening Officer from the Oncology Department and what she learned listening to patients
21:02 – How patient perspectives made listening valuable
23:56 – How the hospital integrated patients’ concerns and questions for better medical treatment
25:43 – Corine’s role in bridging patients with the doctors and nurses
30:03 – The effects of listening on patients and on physicians, and how that changed the hospital’s policy
Key Takeaways:
“The only thing I was doing was attentive listening: asking questions for clarification and giving attention...and people often ask me, ‘Why did doctors allow you to do this with their patients?‘ And that was because I didn't give any advice. I didn't give any opinions. I was listening to their story. And I finished every conversation when a person said I am finished saying what I wanted to say and what I needed to share.” – Corine Jansen
“…And when he found out how powerful the listening was for him as a human being in the role of a physician, it changed the man.” – Corine Jansen
“[The hospital was able to provide] much better treatment...not [only] medical treatment but human treatment...than we could ever offer before because they [patients] shared so much and it was not in our protocol. It was not in our system to listen to these kinds of stories, so they enriched the relationship between patients and their physicians.” – Corine Jansen
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