The power of listening during moments of uncertainty
Have you ever received advice from a colleague when all you wanted was to be heard? Or shared personal news that was quickly met with a “I totally get it because when I was younger I …” and felt the gravitas of your situation being dismissed? That’s because listening is hugely important to people, but it’s not easy to do well — even in one-on-one conversations. Now imagine getting it right with a group of 50,000 people, each with their own preferences and perspectives.
Aside from truly knowing your audience, getting it right requires preexisting psychological safety, a high degree of emotional intelligence and an approach that’s tailored to the realities of those “in the room." It’s something leaders have struggled with for years, even in the most predictable conditions.
In 2025, as we operate in a business environment that’s been anything but predictable, I often hear from leaders that they are unsure how to mobilize their teams to move in a new direction. On the flip side, we know many employees yearn for a stronger voice in the direction of their organizations. This dichotomy illuminates a clear two-birds-one-stone opportunity for businesses. Using the power of listening, they can make better decisions while simultaneously building employee trust and commitment. Moments of change present opportunities for people across an organization to come together, put seniority and ego aside and use their collective brainpower to chart the best path forward. As pioneers in advocacy and activism have said over the years, “nothing about us without us.”
It’s no longer enough to ask what’s working and what’s not. The workforce of today wants a more active seat at the decision-making table and the workforce of tomorrow demands it.
— Tom Joy, Director
How leaders can level up their listening efforts
While new listening tactics require an investment of time, they can drive significant results in various transformation contexts — including post-merger integration, reputational crisis, culture change and business model evolution. Below are some tactics that I’ve seen serve well during moments of change. As you read through, remember that the more targeted you get with your listening efforts, the more valuable insights they will yield.
Employee advisory boards that elevate employee voices at the decision-making table and provide an “on the ground” view for leaders. Think of these like employee resource groups for different parts of the business, but less structured and with no external remit. This is done best when committee members are highly engaged and representative of the organization.
Open forum-style sessions, facilitated by senior leaders, where employees are encouraged to ask candid questions and provide recommendations to management. This is done best when leaders have a good sense of what’s top of mind for that group and provide an opportunity for them to be part of the solutioning process.
Sharing fortnightly prompts with people leaders and a simple mechanism for them to share what they’re hearing. This is done best when department-specific insights are reported back to business leaders, and they host subsequent forums with managers to discuss themes and apply learnings.
Monitoring of commentary across internal social channels like Viva Engage and external channels like Glassdoor allows companies to get ahead of employee expectations and sense issues before they arise. This is done best when businesses identify a taxonomy of terms to track and regularly index relevant insights for parties, such as HR and IT, to digest and address. For larger organizations with a lot of data to cull, these last two ideas can be powerful use cases for Artificial Intelligence (AI).
One key consideration in selecting the right tactic(s) is what I like to call the question of overt versus covert listening. Overt tactics, such as an annual survey, are defined by an explicit request for feedback. Covert listening, on the other hand, happens when we gather input indirectly, through day-to-day interactions. Whereas overt tactics come with an expectation of action — asking employees to take a survey, to continue the example, implies you’re going to do something with their answers — covert tactics that don’t involve direct prompting are less likely to do so. It’s important to remember that inaction is a quick way to erode trust and sabotage future listening efforts.
The path forward
Now is not a time to ditch your annual listening efforts. Those serve as a baseline, helping you to prioritize the most pressing conversations and giving you valuable benchmarks to track over time. Now is, however, a time to expand — considering new listening initiatives and capabilities to enable better decision-making and foster a stronger sense of ownership among teams. In times of disruption, employee voices are both a compass for navigating the unknown and a glue for maintaining a connected culture.
