The Listening Cycle · episode 2
A board pack in their template
Composite scenario. Unofficial analysis for illustration. Not a named firm.
The organisation
The same UK professional-services partnership as episode 1. They already have a board PowerPoint master: navy, serif titles, a layout the PA named ‘Section Header’. Last year’s SurveyMonkey export used SurveyMonkey’s chrome. Partners spent the first ten minutes talking about the template.
The constraint
Do not claim anyone ‘cannot export PowerPoint’. Culture Amp can. Glint lets an admin re-upload Glint’s own template. The uniqueness is an arbitrary client .potx — named layouts, native charts, then a trust stamp. If their ‘Section’ is not our ‘Section Header’, the pack must say so, not silently fall back to ours.
Three decisions
1. Whose template is the first question, not a setting at the end
New pack: use the firm’s master, preselected. If none is uploaded, ask for the .potx before writing a headline. A demo that starts in our colours has already lost the meeting.
2. The chart colours have to come from their theme
A navy deck with our teal bars is still our deck. Theme-derived series colours are the last tell. Layout-name mapping is how a weird master stays theirs instead of degrading in silence.
3. Keep SurveyMonkey for fielding. Stop borrowing its clothes for the board
The collector can stay. The June room reads the firm’s typeface. Dual mapping (their word / the construct) is a switch in the meeting, not a second fieldwork.
The cycle
| Channel | When | Who fields |
|---|---|---|
| Stay conversations People partner | April–May — notes already coded | Offline — already in the cycle |
| Partner pack Managing partner + People partner | June, one meeting | SurveyMonkey wave, analysed here, exported into their .potx |
| Trust stamp on that pack Practitioner | The night before the meeting | Invariants, verbatim quotes, finite-population MOE — fail closed |
- Week 1 — Receive the firm’s .potx. Map ‘Section Header’ to our section layout. Do not skip this because the preview ‘looks fine’.
- Week 2 — Stitch last year’s SurveyMonkey workbook. Dual map: ‘belonging’ as they say it / team health as the construct.
- Week 3 — Build the pack in their master. Chart series from their theme. Trust pack on Export.
- June meeting — Switch mapping 1 / mapping 2 in the room if a partner asks ‘is that engagement or belonging?’
- Week after — Actions as WOOP with GAS dates, not a kanban dumped on managers.
What we will not ask
- A screenshot of our UI as the deliverable.
- ‘We export PowerPoint’ as the pitch. They already can.
- Our teal on their navy.
- A v1-versus-v2 choice in a sales demo.
90-minute workshop
15 min · Before and after
Slide 1: last year’s vendor chrome. Slide 2: the same numbers in Section Header. The room is not allowed to discuss findings until they agree which pack they would send to the board.
30 min · Map the master
Open their .potx. Name every layout. Where ‘Section’ is not ‘Section Header’, write the mapping on a wall. Silent degradation is how the uniqueness dies.
25 min · Dual language
Their word and the construct, side by side, for three items. One fieldwork. Two true stories. The switcher has to work in the meeting.
20 min · Who signs the pack
Not the survey platform. The People partner, in their clothes, with a stamp the board can see.