PTA place for listening at work
Busy leaders only half listen. What happens when a company sets aside a time and a place just for listening? The thesis took 15 leaders from a services company through three conversation circles with a listening protocol and followed what changed in how they think and act. Explained in 12 screens.
In everyday work, the most common listening is selective
The thesis arranges listening in steps, from passive (hearing the sound) to transformative, which leads both speaker and listener to rethink their own beliefs. Before trying them out, an honest question: which one do you practise most at work?
The statement and reactions are our illustration. The definition of each step comes from the thesis's taxonomy of listening (Table 3), adapted from McCann, Barto and Goldman (2019), Murphy (2019), Adams et al. (2022) and Anderson Sathe et al. (2022).
With remote work, conversation turned into chat
The research took place at a large services company that had been through difficult years:
Communication became almost entirely written, quick and short. Compare the same conversation in both formats:
Leaders' words from the first round of interviews (section 6.1). The lost signals summarize what the interviewees describe; the drawing is ours.
The researcher also ran the programme
In action research, the researcher intervenes: plans with the company, acts, monitors and evaluates, in a cycle that feeds back into theory. The author designed a programme for leaders, ran the circles and interviewed everyone before and after. Tap a step:
Section 5 of the thesis (Table 6). The profile is given only in totals, "to avoid any kind of identification". In the figure, the order of people is ours and does not match codes E1 to E15.
Before, listening was a matter for the ears, the company or the job
In the first interviews, the author looked for the different ways of understanding listening (the method is called phenomenography). Three conceptions emerged, from the shallowest to the most elaborate. None cast the leaders themselves as people who need to learn to listen. Tap a step or a cube:
One cube per leader (the thesis's codes). Conceptions and quotes from Table 9 and section 6.2. Table 9 lists E10 under two conceptions; we follow the case table (Table 14) and the counts in the text (6 and 8), which place E10 in the second.
To talk in depth, the group needed a guide
The thesis started from a protocol created by an international group of listening researchers, which includes the advisor. In a 2020 test on Zoom with 20 supervisors at an insurance company, the pairs ended up making small talk. A topic was missing. The author added a critical incident: something out of the ordinary that called for a decision, improvisation or emotional effort. Walk through the protocol:
Questions from Figure 2 of the thesis (Transformative Listening Protocol based on Critical Incidents, PETIC in Portuguese). In the circles, the protocol guided the facilitator; the questions were projected on screen. Drawing is ours.
The place for listening took shape circle by circle
Reflective conversation circles draw on Paulo Freire's culture circles. In a closed room, with breakfast, the 15 leaders formed pairs of their own choosing, told an incident and then reflected as a group. Each circle had the same structure:
Dates, themes (Table 7), timings (Table 8) and quotes from section 6.3. Quotes from the circles come from the field diary and appear here without codes. The position of each cube in the circle is illustrative.
After the circles, everyone saw listening differently
In the final interviews, the three earlier conceptions were gone. Three others appeared, which do not exclude one another: listening as caring, as a way of understanding others and as a way of understanding oneself and changing. Tap a line or a code to see the before, the after and what the person says changed:
Later conceptions from Tables 10, 26 and 28. E10's case table (Table 14) and the text place E10 under "understanding others"; we follow the three tables. Quotes from Tables 12 to 25, translated by us, with cuts […] where the quote would reveal the person's gender.
Changing your mind is not the same as changing your behaviour
Everyone changed how they saw listening, but to different depths. The author used the levels of reflection of Kember and colleagues (2008): understanding a situation differently, reflecting on it and considering alternatives, or reaching critical reflection, which questions one's own beliefs and turns into action. Only on the top step does the thesis speak of transformative listening.
Types of listening from the thesis's Graph 1 (attention to the other × level of reflection); leaders by level from Table 26. "Four out of fifteen (27%)" is the thesis's own figure.
Teams noticed change only in those who went deepest
To hear the other side, the author invited one team member per leader to an online focus group. In how many of the 15 leaders' teams did someone notice a change?
Tables 27 and 28 and section 6.7. For E5 and E6, Table 28 records "no change observed"; the text says those two team members preferred not to comment. The focus group was not recorded, at the company's request.
A place for listening does not appear on its own
For the author, the circles were the place for listening and the protocol was the tool that set listening in motion. But the place depends on the surrounding environment. The thesis brings together four conditions, drawn from the literature and the fieldwork. Switch one off and see what is left:
Conditions from Figure 8 of the thesis (Taylor, 2007; Cotter, 2014; Reed, Goolsby and Johnston, 2016; Adams et al., 2022). The shrinking circle is our illustration: the thesis does not measure the effect of each condition.
Listening is learned with time, a place and a guide
The thesis defines transformative listening at work as a skill beyond active, empathic and deep listening: speaker and listener rethink their beliefs, and the change shows in actions others can see. It has to be encouraged.
For companies and top management
- Institutionalize the place for listening, backed by HR and management, or it stays an isolated initiative.
- Make sure nothing said in the circle is repeated outside it or turns into retaliation.
For HR and facilitators
- The protocol guides, it does not control: participants choose an incident they are comfortable telling.
- A circle is not a training session; emotions need care. Between leaders and their own teams it may not work, because of power relations.
For leaders
- Booking time to listen, turning the camera on, putting the phone down: small changes the leaders described.
- Hearing colleagues' stories showed that the problems were similar and eased each person's isolation.
What this research does not say
- Whether the changes lasted. It is not a longitudinal study; the reflections may continue or fade. · according to the author
- The teams' view is partial. Only 8 of the 15 invited attended the focus group; the leaders' peers and bosses are also missing. · according to the author
- One hierarchical level, one setting. Effects on other levels or other areas of the company are unknown. · according to the author
- One company, 15 people. A qualitative case study with no comparison group; changes come mainly from the leaders' own accounts. · our observation
- The facilitator was also the evaluator. The researcher ran the circles and the interviews, as is usual in action research, which may influence the answers. · our observation
Credits
LEMOS, Vanessa Angioletti Ferreira. Lugar de escuta no trabalho: uma proposta de desenvolvimento para líderes à luz da teoria da escuta transformadora. Doctoral thesis (Business Administration) · Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, 2023. Advisor: Prof. Dr. Janette Brunstein.
Research approved by Mackenzie's Research Ethics Committee, with consent forms and a confidentiality agreement with the company. CAPES scholarship (Brazil's graduate education agency). Interviews were transcribed with an AI app (Reshape) and checked by the author against the audio. This version simplifies the work for the general public.