Understanding Check

This exercise asks people to paraphrase a previous speaker's comments to ensure they have accurately understood what they said. When a paraphrase is perceived to be inaccurate, the previous speaker explains what has been misunderstood.

Purposes

• To practice active listening
• To practice accurate paraphrasing
• To teach people to check their understandings are accurate
• To demonstrate how easy it is to misinterpret someone's original meaning
• To avoid people attributing words and ideas that speakers did not express

How It Works

• Before a discussion everyone agrees to the Understanding Check ground rule, which holds that when anyone calls out “check for understanding,” the next to speak summarizes the previous speaker's main point and offers a synthesis of the discussion so far before adding something new.
• At any point in the Understanding Check, any previous speaker may comment on the accuracy of how well his or her point has been captured.
• Facilitators can model the process early on by asking for a check and then summarizing the speaker's point themselves.
• The group debriefs to see how the exercise went and whether it increased attentiveness to each other's observations.

Where and When It Works Well

1. Universality. This has broad applicability to any discussion setting because most people need practice hearing other people's words more accurately.
2. When participants have developed some familiarity and trust. This works best when a group has experience working together and holds a degree of ease. We avoid using this in the early stages of a group's time together.
3. When the most powerful in the group are called on. Those who hold most power in an organization or group are sometimes the least likely to take the time to listen to others. This creates an opportunity for them to practice that behavior.

What Users Appreciate

1. Attention to accuracy. People appreciate others remembering accurately and respectfully what has been said.
2. Accentuating listening. The pressure on members to report what they have heard accurately leads to closer listening from which everyone benefits.

What to Watch Out For

1. Resistance. Expect some resistance even when group members know each other. People typically want to avoid the tension and anticipatory anxiety this activity produces.
2. The “gotcha” moment. Participants often feel that at any moment they could be “got” or caught out, so this exercise can feel like an act of aggression. Not knowing when someone will call out “understanding check” creates anxiety, especially if a speaker is then unable to recall or summarize prior comments.
3. Negative feedback. In the debriefing you will get a lot of feedback that this rule makes participation much more challenging. You will need to remind people that it's designed to improve the ability to listen and to track the group's deliberations.
4. Skipping modeling. Initially, participants won't request a check for understanding, so early on facilitators should call for checks as often as every four or five minutes and then do the check themselves. This enables participants to see the rule in action.
5. Not encouraging correcting. Facilitators must keep asking previous speakers if the summaries are accurate. Previous speakers are unlikely to want to correct the summary, particularly if you're doing the summarizing, but you need to keep insisting this happens. This is done best in team facilitation or co-leadership exercises.
6. Not practicing it enough. Don't just introduce the exercise one week and then drop it the next. Checking for understanding is a helpful practice generally to maintain high levels of attentiveness and keep discussion focused.

Questions That Fit This Protocol

Questions that are open-ended and that promote diverse contributions, lively exchanges, and provocative perspectives work best as a basis for practicing close listening. Examples include the following:

• Racial micro-aggressions seem to be everywhere in our organization. Is this a sign of the pervasiveness of racism or of our tendency to exaggerate minor slights?
• How is white supremacy still present in our community?
• Some people believe that sexism remains the world's most pernicious and far-reaching form of bias and prejudice. What are the arguments for this claim? What are the arguments that other forms of bias are even more pervasive?