Listen, listen, listen
When Borja de la Plaza took over the group of DDB agencies in Colombia, the agency was in a dire situation, with its main division facing losses despite having the client with the highest fee in the country, who had also announced their departure.
The need to understand what was happening from all perspectives among clients, media, partners, competitors, and employees was evident. So, he immediately set to work with mass surveys and in-depth interviews.
What wasn't so obvious was maintaining that flow of communication after takeoff, overshadowed by the whirlwind of day-to-day activities, in an agency with such rapid growth that came with the risk of concentrating contact at the executive level, while losing touch with the masses.
To avoid the latter, he did the following:
With clients, he implemented a simple high-frequency evaluation model to monitor the relationship, enabling us to address potential issues before they become problems.
With media, partners, and competitors, he maintained a constant flow of communication to stay attuned to the agency's pulse in the market.
With the people, the most valuable asset, he introduced the program "Listen, Listen, Listen."
He didn't mind giving it a long, difficult-to-pronounce name because he wanted everyone to make the effort to repeat that crucial word as many times as possible.
When the invitation to meet was sent to the selected person, prioritizing those who requested a "listen" with the President, the subject line of the email read "Listen, Listen, Listen."
In the program, he obliged himself to have a conversation of at least 30 minutes once a week, on average. In other words, a minimum of 52 conversations per year. This way, he ensured he had viewpoints and suggestions from all levels and areas of the organization, as well as addressing their questions and concerns.
After each conversation, he personally created a summary that, in most cases, included concrete actions resulting from the insights provided by employees.
Every three months, he met with the Chief People Officer to share the learnings, discuss them with her, and implement actions they deemed appropriate.
Counting the times he mentioned the program's name in my bi-monthly induction sessions, in every program discussion, in every email that people received with the invitations, in the activity report with the CPO, in the company-wide report in every Quarterly Business Review, among other instances, as well as in day-to-day interactions, he made sure that the word "Listen" was present in his life prominently over 2,000 times a year, which is more than 6 times a day.
Never stop "Listening, Listening, Listening." Listen to others, and not just to yourself.
S&S
#listen #balance #coach #nofilter #leadership #empathy #revelation
