Managers talk about performance, delivery and targets. L&D professionals talk about learning transfer, behavioural objectives and blended learning. There lies a communication gap – one that still exists after many years.
To bridge this, L&D professionals are told time and again to learn ‘how to speak the language’ of their organisations. However, with 35 years of experience in the field, I’ve found that the solution lies not in more talking but in better listening and translating.
Here, I will outline the importance of the listener and translator roles in learning and development, and how you can adopt these underused but powerful positions.
The listener role
Listening in the L&D context is not simply about being present in a conversation. It is about approaching every interaction with a stakeholder or manager as a source of intelligence – and then doing something useful with what you find.
The following approaches will help you adopt the listener role more effectively:
1. Forensic listening
The first approach is forensic listening. This concept is described by former FBI hostage negotiator Chip Massey and communications consultant Adele Gambardella in their book Convince Me. This mode of listening goes beyond active listening. It asks you to treat every conversation as a source of evidence by noticing both what someone says and how they say it. When practising forensic listening, look for word choices, themes and emotions that surface. The moments of hesitation. The things that keep coming up. And the things that are conspicuously absent.
By approaching conversations with stakeholders and managers in this mode, you will stop taking briefings and begin to analyse the real situation. Ask questions such as:
- What was the emotion behind the words?
- What kept coming up?
- What was conspicuously absent?
When reflecting on these questions, you will begin to deepen your understanding of what is really needed, rather than what the speaker thinks they need. This is a significant shift that will change what you design as a result.
2. Root cause analysis
The second practice is to diagnose the real issues.
There are so many occasions when a manager or employee requests training on X, Y, Z. In the world of the L&D order-taker, you might jump straight to writing objectives and sourcing providers.
What if, instead, you ask exploratory questions first and really listen to the answers?
One useful tool here is root cause analysis. This is the process of identifying underlying causes rather than addressing symptoms.
One remarkably straightforward way of doing this is to use the five whys. Ask ‘why?’ five times to uncover the real issues beneath the presenting problem. Whilst this may sound simple, it can be powerful in what it reveals.
The translator role
Once you have listened carefully, the next step is translation. This is not about dumbing things down or finding a way to sell what you already had in mind. It is about finding the version of a conversation that genuinely gets to the heart of a challenge.
When a manager says, ‘my team doesn’t seem motivated, can we organise an away day?’ you have a choice. Leap into planning mode or pause and remain curious about the underlying issue.
It could be low engagement. It could be a lack of resources. It could be exhaustion and burnout – or something else entirely.
In the translator role, you can support the manager to work out the meaning behind their words. This means spending time in open, curious conversation and helping the manager to see why this might be valuable before moving to solutions. Sometimes the most useful thing you can do is to slow the conversation down a little.
Practical tips for the translator role:
- Ask one more question. Before moving into solution mode, ask ‘what would success actually look like?’. The answer will give you valuable information about what really matters to the person you are working with.
- Modify your language. Stop defaulting to L&D terminology. Adopt the language of those around you. Use their words in your questions and proposals. This will not undermine your professional identity; it will demonstrate your willingness to understand their world.
- Translate the impact of what you do. When reporting back on a learning intervention or activity, highlight the organisational impact. What moved? What changed? What were the benefits to individuals, teams and the organisation? This is how learning gets taken seriously in the boardroom – not because you have made a better case for L&D, but because you have connected your activity to what the organisation is trying to achieve.
A question to take away
Many in the L&D profession believe in the power of learning to make a real difference. And that belief is well-placed.
But belief alone does not build credibility. Credibility comes from being the person in the room who genuinely understands what is going on – who has listened carefully enough, and thought analytically enough, to offer something that meets the real needs of the organisation.
Here is a final question: in the last conversation you had with a manager or stakeholder, how much time did you spend listening for clues, and how much time did you spend thinking about solutions?
The answer might be the most useful piece of data you collect this week.
