How do we listen as an organization?

Listening. Helping. Learning.

Engaging these three behaviors as an organization is at the heart of becoming a vibrant and transformational organization. Over the next three months, we will be taking a deep dive into a story of how one client organization, a nationally recognized nature center, embraced these behaviors to transform itself and how its surrounding community helped to lead the way.

First, a little background. It all started with an executive director who created space for his organization to listen. He wanted the organization to listen to staff, board members, key community stakeholders, and long-time partners. For many leaders, this is hard to do. Leaders can get comfortable in what they are doing, how they are doing it, and the results they are getting.

However, because of COVID-19, the organization was forced to cancel nearly all revenue-generating programs, which precipitated a 30% drop in revenue, which in turn depleted available resources to meet important operational needs. Instead of holing up in a proverbial bunker, the organization began asking hard questions…of itself and from its community.

Within only a few months, we reached out to key community stakeholders asking some pretty basic questions. Such as, at the end of the day, what are we really here to do for our community? What does our community really want and need from a regional nature center? As Peter Drucker wrote in the Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask Your Organization, this organization wanted to ask who is my customer, and what do they consider value?

When we listen to others, we must listen to them from their context and not ours. If we listen from our context, we think in our terms, in the systems we employ, and in the structures, we operate and control. When we seek to listen from their context, we desire to understand their underlying needs, wants, and desires. Seeking the client’s ultimate definition of value by listening to them means that we are focused on creating things that help them achieve their hopes and dreams, not ours. By listening to stakeholders, we seek to understand the learnings they require to live into their desired futures, not ours. Very counter-intuitive and essential to do.

As a result of this process, this nationally recognized nature center learned that what their community really wanted was a place to go and experience nature. A place where they could go to unwind, to walk in nature, and at the end of the day to rejuvenate.

This might sound simple, but the best things often are. Listening matters.

If you would like to schedule a high-value 30-minute discovery call to learn more about how you can co-create help with your constituency, I’d be honored to walk alongside you. As always, please feel free to call me at 616.516.9870 or e-mail me at lons@designgroupintl.com.

Walking alongside you,

Lon L. Swartzentruber
CEO, Design Group International
Senior Design Partner