Listening
Initially, the skill steps concentrate on being able to listen effectively to others - including remembering short instructions, understanding why others are communication and recording important information.
Individuals then focus on how they demonstrate that they are listening effectively, thinking about body language, open questioning and summarising and rephrasing.
Beyond that, the focus is on being aware of how they might be being influenced by a speaker, through tone and language.
The final steps are about critical listening - comparing perspectives, identifying biases, evaluating ideas and being objective.
Speaking
Initially, this skill focuses on being able to speak clearly - first with well known individuals and small groups and then with those who are not known.
The next stage is about being an effective speaker by making points logically, by thinking about what listeners already know and using appropriate language, tone and gesture.
Beyond that, individuals focus on speaking engagingly through use of facts and examples, visual aids, and their expression and gesture.
Beyond that stage, speakers will be adaptive to the response of their listeners and ready for different scenarios. The final steps focus on speaking influentially - using structure, examples, facts and vision to persuade listeners.
Problem Solving
The first steps focus on being able to follow instructions to complete tasks, seeking help and extra information if needed. The next stage focuses on being able to explore problems by creating and assessing different potential solutions. This includes more complex problems, without a simple technical solution.
Beyond this, the focus is on exploring complex solutions - thinking about causes and effects, generating options, and evaluating those options. This extends into analysis using logical reasoning and hypotheses.
Finally, individuals implement strategic plans to solve complex problems, assess their success, and draw out learning for the future.
Creativity
The first few steps focus on the individual's confidence in imagining different situations and sharing their ideas.
The focus is then on generating ideas - using a clear brief, making improvements to something that already exists and combining concepts.
Individuals then apply creativity in the context of their work and their wider life. They can build off this to develop ideas using tools like mind mapping, questioning, and considering different perspectives.
The most advanced steps focus on building effective innovation in group settings and by seeking out varied experiences and stimuli. Finally, individuals support others to innovate, by sharing tools, identifying the right tools for the situation and through coaching.
Staying Positive
The early steps focus on identifying emotions - particularly feeling positive or negative. Building off that is the ability to keep trying - and then staying calm, thinking about what went wrong, and trying to cheer up and encourage others.
The focus then turns to identifying new opportunities in difficult situations, sharing those, and adapting or creating plans accordingly. At more advanced steps, individuals identify and manage risks and gains in opportunities.
Finally, individuals support others to stay positive by managing their own response, helping others to see opportunities and creating plans to achieve them.
Aiming High
The focus is then about working with care and attention, taking pride in success and having a positive approach to new challenges. Building on this, individuals set goals for themselves, informed by an understanding of what is needed, and then be able to order and prioritise tasks, secure resources and involve others effectively.
At the higher steps, the focus is creating plans informed by an individual's skill set, with clear targets, and building on external views. At the most advanced level, individuals develop long-term strategies. These are informed by an assessment of internal and external factors, structured through regular milestones and feedback loops.
Leadership
At the earliest stages, the focus is on basic empathy - understanding their own feelings, being able to share them, and recognising the feelings of others. The focus is on managing - dividing up tasks, managing time and sharing resources, managing group discussions and dealing with disagreements.
Beyond that, individuals build their awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses, and those of their teams. This allows them to allocate tasks effectively. They then build techniques to mentor, coach and motivate others. At the highest steps, individuals will be able to reflect on their own leadership style and understand its effect on others.
Ultimately, they should be able to build on their strengths and mitigate their weaknesses, and adapt their leadership style to the situation.
Teamwork
The next steps focus on making a contribution to a team through group decision making recognising the value of others' ideas and encourage others to contribute too.Beyond that, individuals improve their teams through managing conflict and building relationships beyond the immediate team. At the top steps, individuals focus on how they influence their team through suggesting improvements and learning lessons from setbacks.
Ultimately, individuals support the team by evaluating others strengths and weaknesses and bringing in external expertise and relationships.
Skill Step
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Skill Step
To achieve Step 11, individuals will show that they can listen to two or more different perspectives on an issue and compare them.
In the previous steps, the focus was on how to demonstrate active listening, and then to be aware of how a speaker might try to influence us as listeners. This step thinks about how to listen critically to different perspectives and to compare them.
Building blocks
The building blocks of this step are learning:
- What we mean by different perspectives
- What the value is of diverse views
- How to identify the key points individuals are making
- How to compare perspectives
Reflection questions
- What does it mean to have different perspectives?
- What is the value of looking at multiple perspectives?
- How can we identify the core points being made?
- How can we compare perspectives?
What you need to know
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Different perspectives
A perspective is a view of something. That something might be as small as a specific problem, or as substantial as the global economy.
We have a diversity of opinions on a topic, because we have such diversity of information, insights, lived experience, values, cultural norms and underpinning assumptions about the world. What drives these different perspectives is explored in a lot more depth in Step 12.
A perspective might seem obvious or intuitive to the individual who holds it, but look utterly incomprehensible to someone else.
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The value of different perspectives
Each of us only have an incomplete understanding of anything – even experts in their field or academics spend a lot of time talking to one another to share different perspectives, and to debate and try to reconcile different ideas about how the world works.
By being open to different perspectives, we are open to:
- Expanding our knowledge and understanding of the world
- Recognising and benefiting from the skills and experiences of others
- Appreciating different values and cultural norms
- Challenging our unconscious biases and assumptions
There is plenty of evidence that groups that work to incorporate diverse perspectives into their thinking make better decisions and get further as a result. This is because the human brain does not tend to worry about the limitations of what it knows – it presumes it knows enough and then keeps going.
It takes an active effort to try to open up to different perspectives, and to wrestle intellectually with the differences that emerge as a result.
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Identifying the key points
Comparing perspectives is not an easy thing to do, particularly when listening. A simple mental model to do this is to take each individual in turn, and when listening try to capture some of this crucial information:
- What do they think the answer is, or should happen?
- What reasons do they give for this perspective?
- Do they recognise any of the arguments against their perspective?
This process of capturing information is helpful as a starting point, and to help us to process what we are hearing.
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Comparing perspectives
To successfully compare perspectives, though, we need to build up our mental models of the options and how to reconcile what we are hearing.
As we build up our view of the different perspectives, we are looking to:
- Identify the range of available options
- Capture the arguments for and against each of those options
- Assess which of the perspectives we have heard are most credible – that is, most likely to be true
- Evaluate which of the options have the most compelling case, balancing the arguments for and against
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Why this skill step matters in education
In education, there will opportunities for us to listen to others share their perspectives on a topic. This might be during a debate, a class discussion, or when exploring a complex concept or enquiry question. In school, college or university we are expanding our knowledge of the world on a daily basis and building our understanding through listening to different perspectives. When we are presented with multiple viewpoints, it can be challenging to compare what is being said. However, by developing a method to do this effectively, you can listen to a range of perspectives in a critical way and determine which have credibility and begin to build your own perspective.
Why this skill step matters in the workplace
In the workplace, we might work with others when developing new products, discussing company policies or processes, or when reflecting on a service we offer. During these discussions, individuals may share a variety of different perspectives on a given topic. A range of perspectives can help lead us to a more well-rounded and considered solution which we may not have reached if working on our own. It may also help us to better understand and provide for our customers, clients or co-workers. However, it is important to approach perspectives in a critical way to ensure that your own perspective is based on credible and relevant information.
Why this skill step matters in wider life
Listening to different perspectives helps us grow, stretch our thinking and see the world from diverse viewpoints. By learning more about others and ourselves, we can build stronger relationships. When presented with a range of perspectives, having the tools to effectively compare them is beneficial when determining our viewpoint on a matter. This might be useful during group discussions with friends or family, when listening to a debate or reading articles about important issues.
How to practise this skill step
To best practise this step of Listening, apply what you have learnt to a real-life situation. Choose one or more of the activities below, remind yourself of the key points and strategies in the step, and have a go!
- Listen to a debate with multiple people taking part on an important topic such as the environment, animal welfare or transport. What are some of the perspectives being presented? What are the arguments for and against? Which arguments sound most credible? Why?
- Seek out a debate that presents a diversity of viewpoints. Listen to what is said and identify the arguments for and against. How do the participants viewpoints differ? Why might they see the topic differently? What is your opinion on the topic? Remember it might not be a straightforward opinion.
- Find a complex topic that you are interested in. Ask a few friends, family members or peers to share their opinions on it. Listen to what is shared. How do their perspectives differ? How credible are their perspectives? Did anyone share something that altered your opinion?
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Teaching it
To teach this step:
- The teacher should introduce the idea that there exist a diverse range of perspectives on any question, and that diversity is valuable because each of us only holds a small part of the answer.
- Learners can discuss the value of diverse perspectives. The teacher could illustrate this idea with examples – for instance, highlighting how a decision in the context of school or college, like lengthening the learning day would be seen quite differently by different members of the community. Learners could discuss what some of these different perspectives might be.
- The teacher can then model how to reconcile these different views. In this simple example, there are two initial options (to extend the learning day, or not to extend the learning day). Additional options might also be introduced, such as reducing the length of holidays.
- The teacher can illustrate how to draw out these three options, add arguments for and against each option in a grid as they are heard, and then use this to help make a choice.
- Ultimately, the teacher should remind learners that lots of decisions are not clear-cut but are about trade-offs between options, and link to values as much as to outcomes.
Reinforcing it
This step lends itself well to reinforcement in the classroom. For instance, debate can be a way of deepening learners’ engagement with a topic, and those listening have to decipher what they are hearing and decide what they think at the end, having reflected on a variety of options and views.
This step is also useful when learners are listening to different perspectives in other areas of learning. This sort of comparison is often an essential part of learning at a more advanced level.
Assessing it
This step is best assessed through a structured activity where learners have to listen to a range of perspectives on a problem or question. They should demonstrate that they can capture critical information, and then organise it in a simple model to compare the options and reach a justified view of their own, based on what they hear.
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Build it at work
This step is relevant where individuals have to make decisions which involve understanding and evaluating different perspectives.
To build this step in the work environment, managers could:
- Discuss the idea that a diverse range of perspectives exists on any question, and that there is value in that diversity because each of us only holds a small part of the answer. The manager might lead a discussion using an example to support this point – for instance, highlighting the different perspectives on taking industrial action as a way of settling a dispute at work.
- Model how to compare perspectives in a structured way, perhaps using a grid to capture the arguments put forward by each of these perspectives to show an approach to building up a view of different perspectives.
- Task an individual to listen to colleagues, with different perspectives, debate a topic. The individual can be tasked to capture key information, and then organise it in a simple model to compare the options and reach a justified view of their own, based on what they hear.
- Reflect with the individual about ways they could source a range of perspectives on an issue.
Practising it:
There are plenty of opportunities for building this skill in the workplace:
- Working with colleagues: During meetings when there is a need to reconcile different perspectives on an issue so as to decide a best course of action.
- Working with customers or clients: When listening to understand how an issue might affect a customer or client.
Reviewing it:
For those already employed, this step is best assessed by observing an individual during meetings when the merits of an idea or plan are being discussed.
- An individual can be observed and evidence of them listening to a range of perspectives on a problem or question might be identified - such as individual making structured notes to capture the perspectives exchanged.
Spotting it in recruitment:
During the recruitment process, this step could be assessed by:
- Observing an individual as they take part in an assessed exercise which requires them to listen to a range of perspectives on a problem or question and then present these in a structured way to a third party. An observer can look for evidence that shows an awareness of the different perspectives which have been spoken about.
- An individual might demonstrate this through their answers to questions put to them about the different perspectives they’ve heard.
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We work with a wide range of organisations, who use the Skills Builder approach in lots of different settings – from youth clubs, to STEM organisations, to careers and employability providers.
We have a lot of materials available to support you to use the Skills Builder Universal Framework with the individuals you work with, including:
- Tools for self-reflection
- Materials to support you to teach the skills, if appropriate in your setting
- Reward systems like printable certificates
We also do a lot of work with organisations who join the Skills Builder Partnership to build the Universal Framework into their work and impact measurement systems. You can find out a lot more using the links below.
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At home, you can easily support your child to build their essential skills. The good news is that there
are lots of ways that you can have a big impact, including:
- Talking with your child about the essential skills, what they are and how they are useful in all
aspects of life, whether at school, home or in the workplace - Talking about how you use these skill steps in your own work or wider life
- Helping your child to identify where they already build their skills at school, at home or
through other activities and clubs - Praising your child when they show they are using the skills well, and helping them to feel a
sense of achievement - Encouraging them to recognise and talk confidently about their skill strengths with others, and
supporting them to develop their skills further
