SUMMER SERIES
Four mini podcast episodes, released weekly throughout August 2026.
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Episode 1: Progression
About this episode:
Employee engagement drives performance, so why do so many organisations still treat listening as a tick-box exercise rather than pulling it as the genuine performance lever it is?
Ryan and Mel get into what actually separates the organisations moving the needle from those just going through the motions, whether 'listening maturity' is a framework worth having or just another thing people game to look good on paper, and what the shift from 'we run surveys' to 'listening is how we run the business' really looks like when it happens.
They also tackle what AI can and can't replace in the listening process, and - with a frontline lens - how the ambition has to change when a huge portion of your workforce is nowhere near a screen.
Episode 2: Managers
About this episode:
Is management even the right reward for a great individual contributor? Or are organisations routinely promoting people into a role that was never a good fit for them?
Ryan and Mel dig into why behaviours are such a powerful driver of performance, and what really separates a manager who acts on feedback from one who files it away and forgets it - whether that's a skills gap, a motivation gap, or something more systemic.
Ryan also answers the question every stretched people team wants a straight answer to: if a manager only has capacity to do one thing with feedback, what should it be? And for the frontline manager running a shift of 30 people with no time to sit down and review a dashboard - what does 'good' actually look like in practice?
Episode 3: Leaders
About this episode:
There's a pull back towards more top-down, autocratic leadership styles - globally and inside organisations. Is that just a cyclical pattern, or is it something that can be actively disrupted?
Ryan makes the case that autocratic drift is a symptom of pressure, not strategy - and that listening-led leadership isn't the soft option, it's a harder discipline that takes more courage and conviction. He and Mel also get into what actually happens when leaders say culture is a priority but don't change what they reward or tolerate, what handling bad survey results well really looks like, and how to keep listening genuine during change that people won't like no matter what.
Plus, how do the best senior leaders stay genuinely connected to the frontline when they're often the furthest removed from it?
Episode 4: Employees
About this episode:
What's the biggest gap between what employees actually experience and what organisations think they're delivering?
In the final episode of the series, Ryan and Mel go straight to the heart of employee voice, and what it actually takes to make people feel heard enough to go above and beyond.
They start by dismantling one of HR's favourite vanity metrics: the response rate. A high number isn't proof things are going well; a high response rate with guarded answers is worse than a lower one with honest ones.
They explore what happens to trust when feedback disappears into a black hole, the pay conversation most listening programmes quietly sidestep, and when asking for feedback stops being useful altogether - because asking more than you can act on just teaches people their voice doesn't matter.
Ryan also answers the question nobody asks out loud: if you could ban one HR practice around listening tomorrow, what would it be? And for the deskless workers who are hardest to reach yet closest to the customer experience - what does meaningful listening actually look like?
The conversation continues this Autumn!
The Summer Series is just the starting point. The themes Mel and Ryan explore: Progression, Managers, Leaders, and Employees, are at the heart of our WorkBuzz Live! 2026 event on Tuesday, 6th October at Leonardo Royal London City.
A full day of keynotes, practical workshops, and the launch of our Future of Work findings for HR and People leaders. If you haven’t yet registered, we’d love to see you there!
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