30-Day Challenge: Deep Listening & Thinking

To deepen your own and others’ thinking and feeling

In the online Challenge platform you will deepen and practice your listening skills in just 7 minutes a day. You will learn in a light-hearted, playful, free and fun way. It is suitable for everyone.

You improve the independent thinking of others so that those can come to better ideas. You gain more insight yourself, because others are sharing more. You improve your (working) relationship with them, because you create a safe Thinking Environment in which you radiate: you and your thoughts matter to me.

“The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do prior to it. The quality of our thinking depends on how we are treated by others while we are thinking.” – Nancy Kline

“If our thinking is good, so are our decisions, innovations, solutions, creativity, ideas and insights. Make sure you treat each other well while thinking. You do this by Deep Listening.” – Marjoleine van Sinderen

The Challenge will be in Dutch. Time to Think Coaching, Group Facilitation and training courses are in English and Dutch.

30-Day Challenge: Deep Listening & Thinking

To deepen your own and others’ thinking and feeling

In the online Challenge platform you will deepen and practice your listening skills in just 7 minutes a day. You will learn in a light-hearted, playful, free and fun way. It is suitable for everyone.

You improve the independent thinking of others so that those can come to better ideas. You gain more insight yourself, because others are sharing more. You improve your (working) relationship with them, because you create a safe Thinking Environment in which you radiate: you and your thoughts matter to me.

“The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do prior to it. The quality of our thinking depends on how we are treated by others while we are thinking.” – Nancy Kline

“If our thinking is good, so are our decisions, innovations, solutions, creativity, ideas and insights. Make sure you treat each other well while thinking. You do this by Deep Listening.” – Marjoleine van Sinderen

The Challenge will be in Dutch. Time to Think Coaching, Group Facilitation and training courses are in English and Dutch.

What does it bring you and the other person?

You will learn and practice:

  • how to Listen Deeply to deepen the other person’s thinking so they can tap into their resourcefulness, creativity and problem-solving abilities. We answer and practice with:
    • What does Deep Listening look like? What does it yield?
    • How do you keep your mind from wandering while the other person is talking?
    • How comfortable are you with silences?
    • Why ask open-ended questions? What makes a question good?
    • What mindset do you have? The learning or judgmental, because this shines through in your questions.
    • What do you assume? Examine and replace untrue assumptions with true ones.
    • What positive quality do you notice in the other person? Name them.
  • how to listen to yourself. When you listen to yourself first, you are better able to really listen to others
    • How to clear your head?
    • How can “following your breath” support you in listening inwardly?
    • How do you use your belly breathing to bring peace to yourself and to the conversation?

What others are saying:

  • “The Challenge is suitable for everyone from young to old, regardless of your education, work or background or current listening skills.”
  • “How liberating it can be for the other person when you show that you are listening without judgment.”
  • “I experienced today that having patience and conscious listening gives respect to the speaker”.
  • “A colleague told me about an activity he had to do today. I tried to ask open-ended questions. This gave a very engaging conversation”.
  • “I notice the growth in Deep Listening in myself and the added value for the other person. Beautiful!”
  • “Thinking out loud in the attentive presence of a good listener makes me understand myself much better. When I think alone, I have less of that”.
  • “Beautiful session yesterday in The Hague where people spent the whole afternoon listening to each other with respect. Very nice”.
  • “Yesterday morning during a coaching session my client felt deeply and saw what was there, what she did and what effect it had on her, the other person and on their relationship. Through the presence of silence, sincere attention, a few open questions, no judgment, no opinion, no advice, a safe space where she was allowed to say and feel everything. Where it was radiated: ‘you matter’ and ‘I’ve got you’. This resulted in her own ideas on how to approach it. She is intrinsically motivated to do it this way, because it came from herself.”

Free of obligation

In a busy period, the Challenge offered me peace, insight, content and challenge. There was a fine balance between being challenged, gaining knowledge, practice time and reflection. Besides a number of very concrete tools, what stayed with me most was the Thinking Pair during an online bonus session. During the Challenge, I never had the feeling of ‘having to’, but rather free of obligation. There was room and attention for all kinds of questions and uncertainties could be mentioned.

A real eye (or rather ear) opener!

“I thought I was pretty good at listening to others and that this usually produced fine conversations. After this Challenge I know that much personal growth is still possible and that this can yield much better conversations and a deeper connection with the other person. I now know and experience the power of allowing silences and the value of mentioning qualities that I appreciate in another person”.

An enrichment for myself and others

“With your interesting Deep Listening Challenge you pleasantly surprised me. Beforehand, I thought it might not apply to me because I had already reached the age “of the wise.” Nothing could be further from the truth. There was still plenty of room in my heart and head to park many of your goals and vision there. And…, especially to work with it. I will try to use this acquired knowledge in the future to give space to others and also to enrich myself by doing so.”

Every day new inspiration and challenges

“Too bad the 30-day Deep Listening Challenge is now over. I had just gotten used to getting new inspiration and challenges every morning.”

(Marjoleine: “Fortunately, the Challenge takes place a few times a year. You are always welcome to join again to refresh your skills and deepen your relationships even further, Angelika”)

Our daily listening could be so much better

“I am learning how to stimulate the other person’s thinking process so that they can find solutions on their own. I learn that deep listening is a valuable form of connecting communication and encourages respect for each other. It is a very nice experience, the Challenge. To interact with people like this and practice something so positive. The format of the Challenge is super enthusing, so that I am motivated to want to keep practicing further. It feels enriching, that something we do daily, listening, can be done so much better”.

Connection

“I have learned most to ask open-ended questions instead of closed questions. I now know and experience what it is like to also listen to myself in addition to listening to others. If I had to describe my experience with the Deep Listening Challenge in 1 word, I choose the word connection.”

The content of the Challenge:

  • you get Daily Inspiration, a quote to think about.
  • you regularly get my Coach Micro Lessons (3 per week) to learn more about Deep Listening.
  • you choose your Daily Listening Intentions from a list (based on microlessons). The intentions you set in your Daily Private Journal are visible to you and not to other participants.
  • you can share your insights, experiences, breakthroughs and questions about Deep Listening in the Meaningful Moments section if you like. Others will do the same, so we can learn from each other, inspire each other and improve our listening and understanding.
  • you get a Weekly Challenge. That’s a video, usually a TedTalk, related to Deep Listening for more inspiration and reflection.
  • You share what you are grateful for in that moment in the Daily Gratitude section. Being grateful helps you think more positively, which has a big impact on your happiness and success.
  • you get a piece of virtual coaching from me.
  • during the live bonus sessions that you can join without any obligation, we listen deeply to each other and get the chance to think deeply and undisturbed about a topic that is important to you.

Your investment:

Your daily time investment will be small, but the impact will be huge on you and your (work) relationships. Your investment for this Deep Listening Challenge is now only €69 including tax. The Challenge is in Dutch.

For companies

 If you would like to do this Challenge alone with your own team or department, contact me: marjoleine@4cunity.com. I can set up a custom branded Challenge that is private for you. If you want your team to participate in a public Challenge, you can reserve paid seats in advance.