Active Listening in CX: Getting Key Stakeholders to Hear
- Kristine Aitchison
- Jun 25
- 4 min read
In customer experience design the quality of our storytelling hinges on how well we actively listen. Helping stakeholders truly hear what matters, turns insights into action and impact.
Let’s be honest: active listening isn’t always easy, especially in cx design, where the quality of our insights hinges on how well we really hear what people are telling us. Not just the words they say, but the intent, emotion, and need behind them.
Recently, one of our members shared that they find active listening a real challenge. They shared that instead of taking detailed notes (which they find distracting), they anchor themselves by repeating keywords and silently summarising what he’s hearing. Recording meetings also helps.
If active listening is a challenge for us, how can we be confident that our stakeholders are truly hearing what matters? How do we ensure they’re not just hearing our words, but genuinely engaging, so the right actions follow and real impact is made?
Helping Stakeholders to Listen
One of the biggest challenges we face is not just being heard, but being understood. When stakeholders are time-poor or results-focused, it’s easy for insights to get lost in translation, especially if they’re wrapped in data, jargon, or slide decks. To unlock meaningful change, we need to design not just for our customers, but for our internal conversations too.
At IAG’s Design Centre, this understanding led to the development of the Creative Intelligence Programme: a practical initiative designed to help employees tap into creative thinking to solve problems, engage customers, and spark impactful innovation across the business.
The 5Cs of IAG's Creative Intelligence Programme.
Creativity plays a critical role in driving innovation. It allows designers and leaders to open up space for new thinking that connects with people in more meaningful ways. It doesn’t just help CX designers generate better ideas, it helps us communicate those ideas in ways stakeholders can hear and act on.
The Creative Intelligence programme at IAG teaches that building emotional connection and shared understanding within teams and leadership is just as crucial as designing for end-users. Helping stakeholders listen actively means engaging them with curiosity, reframing the way we share insights, and tapping into emotional resonance, just like we do with our customers.
If you’re interested in learning more about the IAG Creative Intelligence programme, you can watch the full talk in our on-demand learning.
Storytelling as a Listening Tool
Storytelling, tailored communication, and emotional resonance can bridge the gap between hearing and being heard by stakeholders.
At a recent Career Club session, CX practitioners gathered to explore how storytelling can transform passive listening into active engagement, particularly when communicating insights to stakeholders. Too often in CX, we fall into the trap of presenting facts and data, hoping that logic alone will inspire change. But stakeholders, like customers, are human. To drive action, they need more than information. They need a reason to care.
Several participants shared that even when they had compelling insights, they struggled to get buy-in. Timing, budget, and risk aversion are common barriers. What made the difference? Stories that resonated.
For example, let’s say you’re trying to market baby formula to mothers in Southeast Asia. You wouldn’t talk about the pricing or the market share, you’d tell a story grounded in emotion about a mother who is worried about food safety.
That narrative helps stakeholders connect to a customer's lived reality, making the insight stick.
How Do We Get Stakeholders To Actively Listen?
It starts by creating experiences, not just presentations. Rather than walking into a room with a solution, we challenge you to invite key stakeholders into a shared sense of exploration.
Use storytelling, visuals, and even small co-creation activities to shift from passive information transfer to active participation. When stakeholders feel part of the process, they’re more likely to engage deeply and invest in the outcome.
Whether it’s sharing customer quotes, painting a vivid journey, or simply bringing the customer’s voice into the room, stories create shared understanding. They move us from “this is what we found” to “this is why it matters.”
And, active listening goes both ways. Tailor your messaging to your audience and adapt your storytelling approach depending on who you’re speaking to: executives, engineers, or designers. As CX professionals, we need to listen not only to our customers but also to our stakeholders, to understand their language, priorities, and concerns.
Even small details, like the emotional attachment customers had to physical membership cards, can influence big decisions when communicated with clarity and care.
Here’s your next challenge: At your next stakeholder meeting, don’t just present—engage. Bring one customer story to life. Use a quote, a visual, or a short narrative that illustrates not just the insight, but the emotion behind it. Then, ask one open-ended question that invites your stakeholders to reflect, respond, or build on what they’ve heard. Shift the energy from passive listening to shared meaning-making, and see how the conversation changes.
Ultimately, getting stakeholders to actively listen means shifting from delivery mode to discovery mode, because when we model active listening ourselves, we invite others to do the same. Because, when key stakeholders truly connect with what we are saying, there is a greater chance of shared understanding, which paves the way for action and impact.
Join The CX Collective Storytelling Challenge
Become a CXC member and be part of our weekly Storytelling Challenge in our community forum. These weekly challenges are designed to lift your storytelling muscle and our collective practice!
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