The One-Channel Hypothesis
- unknown for most people!

Unfortunately, most people - including the well educated - have never learned that we overestimate our ability to listen. It's easy to be believe that we humans are fantastic, that we can do the most complicated and difficult things. But it is also easy to forget our limitations.

The One-Channel Hypothesis says ...

We humans aren't capable of thinking of more than one thing at a time

Maybe you've never heard of the One-Channel Hypothesis but when you've understood the One-Channel Hypothesis you're more than half-way to understanding how to give a great presentation and how to act in different situations. And this means both privately and at work.

You have undoubtedly heard people say
- Sorry, I didn't hear what you said. I was thinking of something else ...
What happens is that you and everyone else listens to (or thinks about) the topic that is most interesting at that moment!

Now things are getting more difficult! Maybe you understand why we have to learn to speak differently:

When we talk to another person, we must always be more INTERESTING
than that person's own thoughts – otherwise she or he won't hear us!

Can't we decide when we want to listen?
No! This is a skill we don't have! But this is probably just because we're not motivated or interested, you're thinking. It's possible, but the interested person begins to think about something he has just listened to, processes that in his brain and then continues thinking. At this moment, he has stopped listening.

You can't learn to listen. Unfortunately, you may see recommendations such as "Listen for ideas, not just facts – and skip the uninteresting parts." This is bad advice.

Have you thought about what frequently happens when you listen to the national weather forecast? How difficult it is to listen for the weather in your own area?

If you live in Chicago, you naturally know that this area is called the Midwest. While you know that the Midwest is seldom mentioned first, how many times have you missed it and found yourself listening to conditions and forecasts for some other part of the USA? You missed what you were most interested in hearing.

When you realize you've missed it, you don't try to do an instant replay by asking yourself "What did they say?" No, you know you haven't heard what was said even if your eardrums have received the vibrations of the weather report. But where did they go?

This is an example of passive listening. The One-Channel Hypothesis is working! Your thoughts have been somewhere else and you don't even notice what you've been waiting for. If the listener has to make quick decisions without missing anything essential, the speaker can't be detailed or verbose.

Make a habit of noticing how the One-Channel Hypothesis works in daily life. Think about why you stopped listening to something you wanted to listen to. Try to think about what distracted you or what you were thinking of.

We need a new way of preparing. A new way of presenting. A new way of organizing our material.
Can you imagine the consequences if a teacher, parent, child, salesperson, speaker, politician, news reader ...
... could get their listener's undivided attention?!

Imagine that we could learn to talk with each other and not just at each other, to be able to say what we really wanted to say! There is the really great opportunity. And we can learn to do so; that's what these pages and my book is about!
Tell me more, here and now!

Copyright © Bengt Hemlin 2002