Get Shit Done Step 1 — Create a Culture of Listening 4 | 4

Our next several episodes of the Radical Candor podcast are going to be shorter explorations of the nuts-and-bolts details about each step of the Get Shit Done Wheel. First up is listening. Kim, Jason and Amy discuss how to create a culture of listening because if you can get your team members to listen to one another, they’ll fix things that you as the boss didn’t even know were broken.

Listen to the episode:

Radical Candor Podcast Episode At a Glance

Three key steps to creating a culture of listening are:

1. Create a simple system for employees to use to generate ideas and voice complaints,
2. Make sure that at least some of the issues raised are quickly addressed, and
3. Regularly offer explanations as to why the other issues aren’t being addressed.

Radical Candor Podcast Checklist

1. Your one-on-one meetings should be really reserved for listening to people. What ideas do people have that they don’t have time to work on? What are the problems that people are wrestling with? If you’re the boss,  treat your one-on-one meetings as an opportunity to listen and have a real conversation with folks.
2. Create a culture of listening to understand. Repeat back the issues they raised, as you understand them, to ensure you’re on the same page. You can say, “So what I hear you saying is…” 
3. Surveys are not listening but you can adopt a simple system that allows people to easily generate ideas and bring up problems like a Slack channel, a weekly ideas meeting or other tools. Bring people along. Keep them informed whether their ideas will be implemented. If you’re not able to implement an idea, at least acknowledge that the idea is there so that people continue to create this culture of sharing ideas and perspectives.

Radical Candor Podcast Resources

• How Do You Get Stuff Done Without Telling People What to Do? Talk Less, Listen More
• Are You a Quiet or Loud Listener?
• HBR: Getting the Best Employee Idea
• HBR: How to Really Listen to Your Employees
• Psych Central: The Complete Active Listening Guide:
• Meet Like A Boss — The 411 On 1:1s
• ‘Whistling Vivaldi’ And Beating Stereotypes
• ‘Active Listening’ by Carl R. Rogers and Richard E. Farson
• Rogerian Argument

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