E187 | The Lost Art of Being Heard | Julian Treasure

Guest: Julian Treasure, Founder, The Sound Agency | Author, Sound Effects

We live in perhaps the most connected age in human history — everyone has a platform, everyone has a voice, and increasingly, even machines can speak for us. But are we actually getting better at communicating?

Julian Treasure has spent decades exploring two deceptively simple human abilities: how we listen and how we speak. His TED Talks have reached more than 170 million people, and his mission — “to regenerate the world’s listening” — exists because almost everyone believes they’re already good at it, and almost no one is. In this conversation, we go past the talk to the practice: why leadership listening is in crisis, the four-letter frameworks (RASA and HAIL) you can start using in your very next conversation, what AI can never replace in a human voice, and the one piece of arrogance Julian had to unlearn before any of the rest of this was possible.

Key Quotes

• “Listening isn’t a capability. It’s a skill that you can master, develop, learn, and grow through.”
• “Almost everybody thinks they’re a good listener. In fact, almost nobody is.”
• “Listening is the foundation of our democratic societies.”
• ” Learn to listen, because listening is the most wonderful way of growing as a human being.” 

Book Recommendations

1. Sound Affects: How Sound Shapes Our Lives, Our Wellbeing and Our Planet
2. Inspire Someone Today – Ignite Your Purpose with Timeless Insights From Industry Pioneers