A Space for Discovery

Listening, Curiosity, and the Ombuds Role

“You can’t know what story the shell longs to tell of the sea without holding it to your ear.”

When we first pick up a seashell and hold it to our ears, we may hear only our breath. With time and stillness—through intention—the whisper of the sea in the shell comes to us. The shell becomes a space of discovery.

The power of space, time, and silence

I can’t recall where I first heard this wisdom, but its truth has stayed with me. As University Ombuds, I relish the insight. Sometimes in conflict, people begin by expressing and hearing only what is loudest and most familiar. As an ombuds, I witness how, given space, time, and silence, deeper truths emerge for people. What begins as frustration or uncertainty often reaches toward discovery.

What a gift it is when people who face conflicts and challenges share their feelings and stories with me. The longer I embody the role of ombuds, the more I realize the power of deep listening to open pathways—not just to resolve conflict but to transform it.

Curiosity as an opening

Conflict thrives in certainties: “I know exactly what happened.” Certainties can be comforting, even confidence-building, but it can also be limiting. In my ombuds practice, deep listening and hospitable curiosity are close companions.

To invite curiosity is to soften certainties. “What if there is another way to see this?” What else might be true in this situation?” “What’s at stake in holding on to this view?” In the confidential conversational space offered by the ombuds office, curiosity can become an opening, a space for discovery, a way of making room for new possibilities to emerge.

Creating a path forward

Deep listening requires patience and a willingness to sit with uncertainty. In my work as an ombudsman, I am reminded daily that transformation often begins not with speaking but with listening, slowing down, and honoring the fullness of a story before strategizing a resolution. Deep listening and hospitable curiosity do not erase conflict, but they imagine a way forward—a way characterized by openness, discovery, and the sometimes unexpected courage of hearing the sound of the sea in a new way.