The Swear Jar Podcast: Shut Up and Listen - a podcast by Andrew Brown and Elizabeth Williams

from 2020-08-11T14:00

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Episode Summary

This week Andrew and Elizabeth talk about listening. Communicators and executives spend a lot of their time talking but many of us forget to listen or don’t do it as well as we should.

Organizations need to listen to make sure their messages are getting through, and to get out ahead of misinformation and rumours, but more importantly to make sure they understand employees’ lived experiences

Done well, listening drives engagement and motivation so employees know why things are happening and to connect them to purpose. More practically it also supports enablement, which is giving employees the information they need to get stuff done.

Before we fire up the survey software, however, we need to take the time to plan our listening; specifically, we want to ensure we are considering the voices we normally don’t hear and to focus less on what we want to hear and more on what employees want to say.

Key Topics

· Why listening is important for organizations 1:25

· The importance of agency 3:20

· Planning to listen 4:00

· Why survey fatigue is BS 6:30

· Interviews and focus groups 09:15

· Team meetings and anonymous feedback 10:10

· Town halls, eavesdropping and observation 13:30

· What to do with all that data 17:40

ABC Resources Highlighted in this Episode

· Podcast: Facilitation with Michael Goldman of Facilitation First (psst – ask about the special ABC discount on Facilitation First workshops)

· Podcast: Why Your Town Halls Suck

· A Handy Reference Sheet about Listening tools