practice · all tools

Listening Assessment

Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation0 — self-guided
Trust · group readinessany
Disclosure · what is sharednone

A daily solo tracking practice: at day's end, estimate how much of your listening happened at each of Scharmer's four levels — downloading (reconfirming what you know), factual, empathic, generative — and watch the pattern over days and weeks. Listening quality made measurable enough to train.

Practical

Time
5-10 min
Group
11 · individual
Settings
self-guided
Materials
A simple daily log
Mechanisms
feedback-mirroring, open-awareness, life-embedding
Change scope
skill · recurring-practice (once a day, at day's end)

Origin & where it lives

Otto Scharmer / Presencing Institute — Theory U (four levels of listening)

Instructions: open online · CC BY (Presencing Institute)

In this directory via u-school for Transformation — Theory U tools

Related: listening to pause (pairs-with) · deep listening (prepares-for)

status: checked · added 2026-08-26