Hear Me Out

One of our team’s unspoken mantras is “you are more than your job.” That’s one reason our Listening Party’s only rule is no asking anyone what they do. What we do is often less important than why we do it. Some of the questions that came up instead: • What are you working on? • What are you looking forward to? • What are you reading right now? Last week, we celebrated the work of Cameron W., a media coordinator at Gucci. The setup included a widescreen monitor rotated 90º to portrait mode with his featured Instagram stories on loop. Cameron told us a highlight was bringing together friends and colleagues. Everyone got to see a new side of him, whether it was coworkers seeing his magazine, Company, or friends seeing his Gucci campaigns. We’re grateful to Cameron for sharing his work and his music, and can’t wait to invite him back as a guest. --- 🤫 Hear Me Out Listening Party is a low-key networking event in NYC where no one’s allowed to ask what you do. 🎶 Every month, we gather for great music and great conversations at Hi-Note, a radio bar in the East Village. 🔔 Request to join our next event later this month: https://lnkd.in/eqESVSgy

Spotted @ Daytime, my neighborhood café, a surprisingly effective message about inclusive language. Note the tone: warm, inviting, and simple enough to explain to a child (or emotionally stunted adult). The examples demonstrate that, far from the caricatures of safe spaces routinely mocked by pundits, respecting gender-neutral pronouns takes little effort. As we enter a historically divisive year, I’m making it my mission to embrace language that invites rather than excludes, that educates rather than alienates, recognizing that most people truly want to be inclusive, but just need a little bit of hand-holding. — Hello! 👋🏻 I’m Ben, the founder of Hear Me Out. We’re a culture strategy firm for leaders with the courage to listen 💬 Follow me for more insights or visit the link in my profile to lower the cost of sincerity for your team.

When Satya Nadella took over at Microsoft, he found out the most experienced people had stopped working together, and nobody had seen it in the data. At Hear Me Out, we’ve seen that while numbers can reveal a lot, they often overlook the real dynamics at play. No set of metrics, no matter how precise, can fully capture the complexities of team culture. That's why we invite employees at every level to have real, open conversations about what they need to do their best work. Our approach cuts through the noise to uncover real insights and foster cultures where everyone thrives together. Because leadership isn’t just about the data—it’s also about understanding the heart of your team. Connect with me here and get in touch to learn how your team can make sure the best ideas get heard.

We filled the house for the last Hear Me Out Listening Party of 2024! Robert McRae came through with an unforgettable set of dancehall, roots reggae and soca. Listen to his playlist at the link in the comments. Thanks to Bennett D. Bennett, Farah Sheikh-Ogoe, Leslie Ogoe, Heather Beck, Jessica Hoffman, stacy-marie ishmael, Millie Tran, Hussain Bakshi and everyone else who came out! We’ll see you all next year 🎉 -- Hear Me Out Listening Party is a low-key networking event with great music where no one is allowed to ask what you do. Every month, we invite a guest selector we admire to share some of their best work and favorite music. Join the list: https://lnkd.in/eggGWXn4

Here’s the uncomfortable truth about employee feedback: your people aren’t speaking up. And your open door isn’t helping. Lattice just published my insights on why this happens so often—and what leaders should do instead. Key insights from our discussion: 👂🏻 On Responsibility: “Passive listening relies on employees to voluntarily share their thoughts… it puts the responsibility on the employee to ensure that feedback reaches the leaders.” 🤝 On Building Trust: “Trust and dialogue are two sides of the same coin. There is no trust without open dialogue and no open dialogue without trust.” 👀 On Employee Skepticism: “What I see over and over is that employees feel like no one’s really listening. What’s the point of speaking up if the powers that be have already decided what they’re going to do?” 📣 On Visible Action: “Make sure to communicate changes clearly and tie them to the feedback, so employees can see that speaking up actually leads to real change.” 💰 On Smart Investment: “I have heard of companies that issue $1,000 bonuses to employees for coming forward with feedback that would improve operations. That’s a small cost for an idea that could potentially save thousands or even millions of dollars.” Let’s be honest: when leaders step up and actively seek feedback, when they prove they’ll act on what they hear, people speak up. And the companies that figure this out first are going to leave everyone else in the dust. Full article in the comments 👇 -- Hear Me Out is a culture strategy firm for leaders with the courage to listen. We lower the cost of sincerity through real conversations with employees at all levels about what’s working and what they need to thrive.

No matter how nice or understanding a leader is, speaking truth to power takes courage. You’ll never find out how people really feel if they’re worried about looking bad or embarrassing the wrong person. At Hear Me Out, we listen to people at work and make it safe to say what needs to be said. Follow me to learn how your team can make sure the best ideas get heard. And if you know someone who needs to hear this, share it via DM 📥

The next generation of MBAs at The Wharton School isn’t just learning about revenue and market share. Yesterday, I taught them culture strategy: what it is, why it matters, and how we practice it at Hear Me Out. Some of the questions we answered: • How can we move beyond empty platitudes to describe our culture thoughtfully and authentically? • Is a high-pressure, low-support environment really unfair to employees? What if they know what they’re signing up for, and join anyway? • What can the recent dust-up at the Washington Post teach us about what happens when leaders misread their own team culture? • Why can’t founders just hire the kinds of people who will thrive in the culture they already have? • How can leaders reconcile the demands of investors and shareholders with the needs of their own teams? I’m thrilled to contribute our perspective to the curriculum as a visiting expert at Wharton’s Venture Lab, and can’t wait to return in the spring. -- Hear Me Out is a culture strategy firm for leaders with the courage to listen. If you’re looking to answer these questions and more, get in touch. Click “Visit my website” above and find a time 🔝🔗

Do your execs know where the mops are kept? The Home Depot is requiring corporate employees to work an 8-hour retail shift every quarter. CEO Ted Decker said the move aims to help the firm “truly understand the challenges and opportunities our store associates face every day.” He’s right—great leaders know that “walking the shop floor” is the quickest way to learn what’s working and what’s not. Consider this anecdote from Harvard Business Review: “A VP of manufacturing told us he’d once saved about $1M because, during a plant visit, he’d veered from the scheduled ‘dog and pony show’ to walk the floor by himself and talk with frontline employees. One of them mentioned a flaw in the design of some bubble wrap.” A lot of startups are trying to get rich by convincing CEOs they need AI to understand their people. But great leaders know the secret: show up and listen. That’s why Hear Me Out starts our culture strategy work with confidential, 1:1 interviews. Our team listens to everyone, from interns to executives. In the process, we create space for open dialogue that reveals blind spots, sparks insight, and builds mutual trust and respect. When’s the last time your leader checked on the mops?

At Hans Hemmert’s 1997 party at carlier | gebauer, every guest saw eye-to-eye. That’s because his shoe extenders made everyone 6 1/2 feet (2m) tall. It’s hard to imagine showing up to work one day to find everyone made the same salary, or had full access to the company’s financials. Most of the time, we just accept that inequality is a natural part of work. Likewise, we rarely notice how our point of view shapes our work relationships. Differences in tenure, seniority—and yes, power—can leave people on the same team living in different realities. The CEO sees clear professional norms, while the recent grad sees a maze of unwritten rules. Hemmert's experiment is a reminder that changing our perspective—even for a brief moment—can reveal hidden dynamics, foster empathy, and spark ideas we might never have seen from our usual vantage point.

Thousands of LinkedIn users are spamming job listings with a new AI bot. One user applied to nearly 3,000 roles, and Jason Koebler applied to 17 in < 1 hour. Managers and HR teams are already overwhelmed by inbound apps. With thousands of AI-generated CVs clogging the system, it will be harder than ever for qualified candidates to stand out. If you’re hiring, you’ll need to update job apps with open-ended questions that require original thinking and personal insight. (We ask candidates to share books that informed their approach to interviewing.) If you’re looking for a job, it’s time to stop focusing solely on open roles and start cultivating your network. AI can fill out a form on LinkedIn, but it hasn’t quite mastered the art of human connection. (As always, 404 Media is doing incredible work and deserves your support)