Are you really closing the loop— or just listening?
Katie Austin
Minutes
16th July 2025
Employee Experience Design, Tools and Templates, Human-centred
The Listening Trap… You’ve done the surveys. Held the focus groups. Built the dashboards.
But here’s the question that really matters: Are you turning insight into action — and are your people seeing it happen?
Because when listening doesn’t lead to change, it’s not just disappointing — it’s damaging. And right now, too many organisations are getting stuck in the "we asked, but nothing changed" loop.
That’s exactly what we unpacked in our latest roundtable — hosted by People Lab in partnership with The EX Space — with a small group of experienced EX, HR, and comms leaders.
Why this matters more than ever
Listening is no longer about data points. It’s about experience — the human experience of being heard and respected. When employees take the time to speak up but never see what happens next, trust erodes. Engagement slips. Belief fades.
That’s why closing the loop isn't just a tactical fix — it's a cultural must.
Where listening gets stuck
In the roundtable, we heard familiar challenges:
Data sits in dashboards with no clear next step
Ownership is murky or fragmented
Managers feel under-equipped to respond
Employees become disengaged from the process
But we also shared real, practical ways teams are breaking through — by embedding listening into culture, distributing ownership, and using simple tools to build momentum.
