Listening as a Design Tool
Building Trust Inside Systems
Every design decision begins with a question: Who is this really for?
Inside organizations, that question often gets lost beneath deadlines, reporting requirements, and the pressure to demonstrate impact. Yet the quality of our listening shapes the quality of the systems we build.
In this session, Sam Hartsock reframes listening as a core design practice for leaders navigating change. Drawing from her experience guiding Fortune 100 companies and century-old family businesses through double materiality assessments, climate strategy, and social impact design, she will explore how structured listening can surface hidden assumptions, reveal risk earlier, and strengthen trust across functions.
Participants will:
- Learn a practical “design listening” framework for strategy, governance, and cross-functional work
- Explore how listening reduces friction inside complex systems
- Practice a structured inquiry method in small groups to experience the difference between surface-level input and meaningful insight
Through conversation and guided exercises, the group will tap its own wisdom and examine how listening can shift compliance-driven processes into trust-building ones. Participants will leave with practical questions and facilitation tools they can apply immediately in their own teams and change efforts.
Why? Because systems don’t change on intention alone. They change when people feel heard inside them. Please join us on March 12 to explore this useful new perspective on listening!
Speaker: Sam Hartsock, qb. Cofounder & Strategy Lead {see BIO below}
(Please join our LinkedIn Group if you haven’t yet done so, and comment on the discussions.)
Schedule for Thursday Evening March 12: (CT)
– 6:45 Virtual setup and Networking
– 7:00 Announcements / Intros
– 7:10 Program Begins
– 8:45 Closing and Wrap Up
– 9:00 Program Ends
Zoom Link to join Virtual Meeting will be sent 2 days before meeting to all who register.
Speaker BIO:
Sam Hartsock is the Cofounder and Strategy Lead of qb., a women-owned strategy and communications firm that helps organizations design for resilience and trust. She has led double materiality assessments, climate strategies, and stakeholder engagement processes for companies ranging from global brands to newly public businesses.
Sam is co-author of Stakeholder Engagement That Doesn’t Suck and lead author of qb.’s forthcoming field guide on people-first resilience. Her work integrates systems thinking, design practice, and organizational development to help leaders build strategies that hold up under scrutiny and actually work for the people inside them. She also writes Build Something Better, a Substack on feminist leadership and values-driven business building.
We look forward to seeing you there!
About the DFW OD NETWORK Membership Info
(Please join our LinkedIn Group if you haven’t yet done so, and comment on the discussions.)