Contents
The success of every organisations employee listening strategy starts with one thing: the right questions. Whatever method you're using to listen, that's where it begins.
At our recent employee listening masterclass, David Fairhurst, CEO of OrgShakers, asked the room something deceptively simple:
"Can you think of a time when you particularly felt heard in the workplace?"
One topic. A clear frame of reference. An invitation to be specific.
That's it. And it worked, because it proved a point most of us skip past too quickly: the quality of insight a leader gets back is a direct result of the quality of the question they put out.
Are you asking the right questions?
Here's the truth, from what we've seen across hundreds of clients: listening programmes rarely fail because of the method. Surveys and more conversational approaches are both proven, powerful ways to hear your people, they just answer different questions, at different moments, for different reasons. What trips organisations up, whichever route they take, is asking the wrong question, in the wrong way, of the wrong people.
Too broad, so the answers are vague. Too much crammed into one question, so nothing lands. No context, so people don't know what "good" looks like when they answer. Sent to everyone, about everything, so no one feels it's really meant for them.
And it gets harder the bigger and more dispersed your organisation gets. When your people are spread across sites, shifts, regions or time zones, a generic question sent to the masses feels disconnected.
What better questions look like
David put three questions to the room that day. Each one did something different, and together they map out exactly what good listening requires.
"Can you think of a time when you particularly felt heard in the workplace?"
Specific. Grounded. Honest. The bigger and more dispersed a business gets, the harder listening becomes, leaders stop hearing what's happening on the frontline and start hearing the polished, filtered version instead. This question cuts straight through that.
"What separates listening that creates real value from listening that creates data?"
Most organisations are drowning in data already. But data isn't the same as value. A question only earns its place if the answer can feed into something operational, a process fixed, a friction point removed, a decision made differently. If nothing changes, you haven't listened, you've just collected. People know the difference, and they judge you on it.
"What is the one thing leaders do that strengthens or weakens a culture of listening?"
Curiosity without defensiveness. Visible follow-through. Consistency. That's what builds trust. Under-responding or not closing the loop, that's what kills it. It's exactly what makes people stop telling you the truth.
Make it personal, and people will open up
There's a fourth ingredient that ties all of this together: relevance.
A question lands differently when someone can tell it was meant for them, their team, their site, their moment. That starts with knowing exactly who you're asking and why, before you've even written the question down.
Get that right, and you open the door to something surveys alone often can't reach: a bit of real connection. And connection is what gives people the confidence to be candid, specific and honest, rather than giving you the safe, generic answer they think you want to hear.
That's not a replacement for your survey strategy; it's part of it. The best listening strategies use the right tool for the right moment: broad, structured surveys to track trends over time, and something more targeted and personal to get underneath a specific issue, with a specific group, right now.
This is exactly what WorkBuzz Dialogue was built for, not to replace the tools you already trust, but to add a new way of listening for the moments that need it.
A leader records a short video asking one focused question and sends it to any group, anywhere, 50 people or 2,000, across as many sites as you need. People respond however suits them: video, voice note, or text, in their own language, anonymously if they choose.
Once the Loop closes, AI distils it all into clear themes, sentiment and the signals that matter. Leaders get a sharp, actionable view of what their people are really saying, in hours, not weeks.
You're never asking alone
Here's the bit we're proud of: Dialogue doesn't just hand you a blank box and wish you luck. Built-in prompts help you shape sharper, more personal, more focused questions right there in the tool, before you hit send.
Because the best insight starts with the best question, asked of the right people, at the right moment. Listen smarter. Lead better.
News
News
News