‘My night was haunted by the thought that somewhere a clue, a strange sentence, a curious observation, had come under my notice and had
been too easily dismissed.’
‘THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY FRANCES CARFAX’
Just as important as developing your visual observation skills is improving your listening abilities. After Holmes had made the observation above in
the case of Lady Carfax, he revealed that ‘in the gray of the morning, the words came back to me’, recalling an apparently off-the-cuff utterance from
the previous day that would serve to help him resolve the case. In another story, ‘The Adventure of the Speckled Band’, he understands the
importance of a ‘low, clear whistle’ in the dead of night better than any other figure in the story, with the exception of the perpetrator of a terrible
crime. In the same way that Holmes could attach meaning to what his eyes saw like few others, he could grasp the connotations of sound quite
magnificently (even when that sound was relayed to him by a witness rather than heard by his own ears).
One of the most famous observations in the whole of the Holmes canon reminds us that when we listen, it may be something that we don’t hear
that proves just as important as something we do hear. The observation is that concerning ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’, namely
the dog that didn’t bark in ‘Silver Blaze’. For most of us, the silence of a dog would be suggestive of very little but when this detail was discerned by
the Great Detective, he was able to read much into it:
I had grasped the significance of the silence of the dog, for one true inference invariably suggests others. The Simpson incident had shown me
that a dog was kept in the stables, and yet, though someone had been in and had fetched out a horse, he had not barked enough to arouse the
two lads in the loft. Obviously the midnight visitor was someone whom the dog knew well.
As with improving your visual observation, the key to listening better is to consciously practise. We listen in two ways: passively – when we listen to
the radio, sit in a lecture or are walking down the street – and actively – for example, when we are participating in a dialogue.
There are a few simple exercises you can use to become a better listener. Tune in to the hourly news bulletin on the radio. Really focus in on what
is being related. When the broadcast finishes, switch off the radio and jot down some notes about what was said. Can you remember each of the
stories in the right order? And can you recall the broad subject or have you retained some serious detail from each? When you begin, you might be
rather shocked by how little has soaked in. But if you keep up the practice for a while, you will likely see some striking improvement. Similarly, sit in
your garden on a summer’s afternoon. Close your eyes but keep your ears open. Note all the different sounds that you can hear, whether man-made
or from nature. Such an exercise can help you become better attuned to the environment around you.
Improving your listening skills when you are part of a dialogue is a different challenge altogether. For the majority of us, when we converse we are
more interested in being heard than hearing. But by being this way, we risk missing out on learning lots of new information that might prove very
valuable to us. Here are a few tips for improving your listening skills when in conversation:
Ask questions
That way, you encourage the other person to speak and yourself to listen.
Don’t interrupt
Avoid the temptation to interrupt, even if it is to agree with the other person. Listening and speaking at the same time is a very difficult skill to
master.
Focus on the speaker
It sounds so obvious but think how often you have been introduced to someone only to forget their name a moment later.
Cut out distractions
If you want to really listen to someone, try to engage in conversation in a place where there isn’t a television showing the football over their
shoulder, or where the latest object of your affections isn’t visible. Keeping eye contact with the speaker is a good way of maintaining your
listening.
Repeat it
Strange as it sounds, repeating something of particular interest that has been said can help lodge it in your mind. You can repeat it quietly to
yourself so as not to unnerve the speaker by seeming to mimic what they are saying.
One of the great advantages of becoming a really good listener is that it builds bonds of trust with those you are listening to and will encourage
them to listen to you in turn.
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