Listening Studies: How Investing Time in Deeply Understanding Community Contributes to Operational Excellence
Authors: Brewer Linda , Martin Clory 
Published: March 2016

Stakeholder expectations for transparency, engagement and responsible performance continue to be a key area of risk and opportunity in today's operating environment. In response to these challenges, organizations are increasingly finding that understanding and proactively engaging stakeholders is not just central to securing a social license to operate, but also to supporting business value (schedule and budget). This paper focuses on one unique method of stakeholder engagement, community Listening Studies, and the value they provide to business performance through improved and informed operational approaches, management of risks and potential impacts, identification of opportunities and maintenance of company reputation.

Community Listening Studies are a form of engagement that allow a set of stakeholders to voluntarily participate and share their experience, perspective and ideas about a particular topic. Throughout the course of listening, the facilitator will reflect back what is heard and validate that they heard accurately, which provides acknowledgement of participation. Listening Studies have been used to bring sometimes subtle yet critical social issues to light. Organizations that adopt and initiate these studies are better able to create early partnerships and avoid potentially disruptive dynamics.

Listening Studies' contribution to operational excellence relies on a number of factors. Engagements must not only be tailored to the specific project and stakeholder context, but also designed so that outcomes can inform critical business decisions and be integrated into business planning and activities across functions. This paper presents successful approaches from adoption of Listening Study projects around the globe, including: Listening, recording and reporting back to communities for validation;Building relationships by listening to communities over time and growing the understanding;Utilizing a neutral party, unconstrained by established company/community relationship dynamics;Initiating listening studies ahead of NGOs or other external critics' attempt to "capture the field";Employing appropriate data collection methods to capture stakeholder interests, concerns and motivations; andIncorporating insights into business decisions for timely risk management.

Listening studies have been shown to provide a number of tangible benefits, including: Providing a "reality check" on performance via ongoing social sensing;Preventing issue escalation by monitoring for early risk identification;Enhancing business value through opportunity identification;Improving management response due to recognition of interconnectedness between issues; andEnabling innovative solutions through strengthened relationships with stakeholders.

Deployment of Listening Studies is a unique and underutilized mechanism for business risk and opportunity management. The critical insights they uncover can inform business decision-making to enhance performance and lead to mutually beneficial outcomes.