BECKY LEONARD
INSIGHT AND CONTENT MANAGER
Listening, connecting and showing up – the trends shaping Q2
April to June edition
“How do I create a listening culture?”
It’s important to listen to each other. This is something we learn at a very young age, but struggle to master as adults. As Mark Twain famously said: “If we were meant to talk more than listen, we’d have two mouths and one ear.” The problem is we often think we’re better at listening than we actually are.
And the same is true of organisations. Many would say that they listen to their people through the likes of surveys or polls. While these obviously play an important role, they’re often structured in a way that gives the surveyor the information they want, rather than allowing the participant to share what’s important to them.
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 82% of respondents say that being given a voice is crucial for earning or maintaining trust in institutions managing change (which in 2025, let’s face it, most are). And more than that, when people feel like they’re listened to, they’re likely to be more creative and more loyal.
So how can organisations really listen by creating legitimate two-way dialogue that makes people feel they are heard and valued?
Firstly, you need to create opportunities for employees to provide context and detail, not just feedback. As Simon Sinek, business leadership expert, says: “Listening is not the act of hearing those words spoken. It is the art of hearing the meaning behind those words.”
We’ve advised clients to run open forums and ‘ask me anything’ style sessions, where constructive discussion and debate is encouraged. This is particularly effective if you ask colleagues beforehand if they’d like to nominate topics so they can really shape the discussion.
Secondly, you need your leaders to understand the importance of listening as a skill. Indeed, Zenger Folkman’s research strongly showed that leaders who are good listeners had much higher levels of trust than poor ones.
So think about investing in some leadership training around listening skills, whether that’s bringing in experts to run a course, like our partner Minerva Inspires, or compiling a repository of existing resources for leaders to learn from.
“Leaders who are good listeners had much higher levels of trust than poor ones.”
“What are we doing about diversity and inclusion?”
It’s an understatement to say it’s been a turbulent time for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in organisations. After shutting down DEI offices across the federal government, the US paved the way for other organisations to follow suit.
We’re working with organisations who have had to cancel or pause DEI strategies and initiatives, while others have paused them while they figure out what their next move is.
But this doesn’t negate the fact that inclusion, or feeling that you belong, is an important part of being an engaged and productive employee.
So what should internal communicators be doing to create a feeling of belonging and inclusivity at their organisations in this climate?
For this one, we turned to the expert. We spoke to Karan Kapoor, Founder and Chief Executive at Vividh, for our upcoming mICdrop podcast.
He explains that internal communicators need to stop seeing themselves as the “messengers” for DEI, but rather a “crucial cultural architect” who can help support how trust is built, truth is heard and belonging is felt.
His top tip? Showing up. Even if you can’t talk about your DEI approach right now, you can make sure that inclusive language and diverse representation is prevalent in every piece of communication you work on – from leadership updates to operation emails.
“Internal communicators need to stop seeing themselves as the ‘messengers’ for DEI, but rather a ‘crucial cultural architect’.”
“Are in-person events back?"
We all know that the Covid-19 pandemic turned the world upside down five years ago, and that many, many things have not returned to ‘normal’ since. One of those was corporate events, with love-them or loathe-them conferences and retreats shelved in favour of online meetings and internal social media interactions.
But this year, we’ve sensed change is in the air, with many organisations coming to us for help in engaging their people with in-person events. In some cases, it’s to tempt people back into the offices. In others, to get leaders to connect with local sites in an attempt to make connections and build trust.
But with Eventify reporting that 36% of managers find it challenging to convince people to attend events in person, what can internal communicators do to make sure an in-person event is valuable?
“After years of virtual interactions, in-person events are your chance to remind employees of the value and enjoyment in authentic human connection.”
First of all, you have to make turning up worth their while. That means not just announcing the event is happening, but explaining what you’ll individually get out of it by attending – and what you’ll miss out on if you don’t.
Next, we’d recommend designing the event around conversation and networking. If you’re going to have people sitting around listening to presentations the entire time, you can bet you’ll hear some “this could have been a Teams call” grumblings. So instead, bring in moments for interaction, connection and even fun.
We’ve helped organisations run hackathons during company conferences, created immersive video installations, and designed, built and hosted multi-purpose event apps. We’ve even developed a digital social wall, which updated in real-time as people uploaded picture pledges from a multi-site road show.
After years of virtual interactions, in-person events are your chance to remind employees of the value and enjoyment in authentic human connection.
Get in touch with Paul, our Head of Insight, at paul.jones@sequelgroup.co.uk to talk about the trends we’re seeing, and how Sequel can help you tackle your communication and engagement challenges this year.
