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Peterson Book Review: Why Don’t We Listen Better?

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Peterson Book Review: Why Don’t We Listen Better?
Peterson Book Review: Why Don’t We Listen Better?

Summary of Book Jim Peterson’s book outlines a very informative and simplistic way to becoming a better listener. Peterson has come up with the idea of sharing a card that allows the talker and the listener to take turns sharing their ideas. He stated three part on how people communicate: stomach, heart, and head. First is the stomach which consist of the feelings and emotions those inner nudges that let us know when we are uncomfortable, happy, excited, interested, attracted, irritable, angry, resentful, frustrated, curious, and any other feelings that humans have. The Second is the heart which when operating properly gives and receives concern, suggestions, support, and also consider possibilities. The third is the head which process the thinking and logical functions (Peterson, 11). Peterson summed it all up by combining the three together to develop the “flat brain” syndrome, he showed that when the stomach is full of different emotions it swells and pushes the heart that makes the brain go flat. This is a way of someone getting out everything they feel at that moment and then return back to their normal state of mind. Jim Peterson allow the reader to explore there the art of what listening really is and that it is more than hearing. The roles being the listener and the talker help the communication process to be effective and avoid the flat brain tango (Peterson, 33). Peterson speaks about the talker, which is the one that open up and begin to take ownership of the problem first and foremost (Peterson, 70). The problem is the talkers they will be the one to solve it, by achieving two goals by first sharing their thoughts and feelings (Peterson, 77-80). With the talker taking ownership and then sharing their feelings they can find a way to accomplish this without attacking, accusing, labeling, or judging. Being that the problem is not someone else’s fault it is the

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