Kiku

Listening connects us to others and the world around us. Learn how to harness its power in this life-changing new book.

Drawing on the Japanese concept of 'kiku', sociolinguist and listening expert Haru Yamada shares a transformational guide to becoming better listeners in our daily life. Kiku is a particular type of listening that goes beyond the superficial. It is a deep listening that brings us together.

Kiku offers a brand-new insight into the art of listening and an informative roadmap to help you to listen with intention and meaning in your daily interactions. Once you understand how hearing and listening work, you'll start noticing your own. You will gain a deeper understanding of the world. You'll read rooms better because you'll be reading more deeply between the lines of the people around you. Kiku is an essential guide to unlocking the power of listening in your relationships, at work and at home, and in the wider world around you.

Kiku--listening with fourteen hearts-is as powerful as the metaphor is beautiful. Combining expertise in the field of linguistics with deep knowledge of Japanese language and culture, Haru Yamada shows that you're already listening in many different ways. Understanding those differences, you can harness and hone the skills you have, to better connect with your own inner voice and the people you talk to. -- Deborah Tannen, Distinguished University Professor, Georgetown University and author of You Just Don’t Understand
Amidst the cacophony of the modern world, this book deftly teaches us the many ways we need to listen: fast and slow, across cultures and generations, and at home and work -- Andrew B Bernard, US Economist and Kadas T’90 Distinguished Professor, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College
A compelling and far-reaching thesis on the importance of listening to others not just in negotiations or daily conversations but in virtually all aspects of social interaction that occur in our daily lives -- Ko Unoki, New Business Development Manager and Lecturer of Business Negotiation at the College of Business, Rikkyo University, Tokyo,
Understanding human listening intelligence is critical to our survival and well-being as we forge forward in the digital world ... Kiku offers a unique perspective for contemporary communicators to navigate their everyday listening in a speaker-led world -- Kono Taro, Japanese Minister of Parliament, former Minister for Digital Transformation and Minister of Foreign Affairs
Read Haru Yamada's insightful book Kiku if you want to understand better what you are doing when you are listening, an indispensable part of the practice of diplomacy and other professions and activities that depend on effective interpersonal communications. -- Daniel Luke Shields, III, Retired US Ambassador and former US Charge d’affaires

Haru Yamada is a sociolinguistics researcher and writer with a PhD from Georgetown University. Haru's life mission is to champion listening, in many ways enforced by a serious accident which left her nearly deaf and with a lifelong hearing disability. Her goal is to make listening a thoughtful part of everyday practice. She currently lives in London with her French partner, two multilingual, biracial, multicultural children in a hybrid working, bigenerational home.

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