Members blog – Why are we talking about listening? Guest Blog from Howard Krais

It is no coincidence that we’ve used the term ‘The Age of Listening’ as the title of the first chapter of our recently published book “Leading the Listening Organisation”, written together with Mike Pounsford and Kevin Ruck. Not only communicators, HR and EX professionals, but also increasingly leaders are recognising that listening has long been a poor relation in the way organisations relate to their people. To help achieve the changes required in modern organisations, listening needs to be understood as a central enabler for innovation, risk management and change, creating a sense of fairness amongst increasingly demanding employees.

These days we see the language of listening appearing more than ever. This might be in LinkedIn articles, the services agencies offer or the way an increasingly number of organisations talk about their listening strategies, even if, in some cases, this might simply be a rebadging of an annual survey. More than that we are appreciating more that communications and engagement cannot be directionally one way. The growing interest in differentiating an employee experience further emphasises the growing importance of listening.

In the book we talk about the many benefits organisations can obtain from effectively listening. At the top of the list is better performance - driven by raised levels of engagement. When you feel like you have been listened to, that you have a voice which has the potential to lead to action, to innovate or improve then you build trust and engagement – factors that make a big contribution to a great employee experience. This feels worth pursuing and that’s why we believe we are now entering into the ‘Age of Listening’.
Come and join us.

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Why are we talking about listening?

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