The LEAF Method

An iterative approach to engagement

The LEAF method draws together some of the core skills of the arts and humanities into a four-stage cycle. The cycle begins with attentive listening, allowing people to express their experience and understanding on and in their own terms. Attending to what emerges from that conversation, the listener then takes agency in drawing connections between ideas, and articulating patterns and priorities in what they have heard. The listener then feeds back that understanding to their interlocutors in a range of forms, before receiving feedback in turn - a process that kicks off a new phase of listening, with which the cycle begins again.