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If you want people to feel part of the transition, you can’t wait for them to show up — you have to go to them.

 

The Listening Lab is a flexible, story-led approach to understanding how communities see change — what they believe, feel and imagine — using creative, inclusive methods that make it easy for anyone to take part.

 

It blends interviews, workshops, online-polls and street-level engagement to reach people who don’t normally take part in consultations or surveys.

 

You might see me and others:

• At markets or high streets, running street intercepts and micro-interviews – asking simple questions like “What do you think when you hear the words community energy?”​

• Setting up message-walls or word-gardens, where people add their own words, sketches or stickers to express how change feels to them.

• Hosting imagination workshops, helping people picture 'thriving futures' through story, collage or mapping exercises.

• Running pop-up story booths or pre/post story walls to see how perceptions shift over time.

• Testing ideas through mini online story polls — short, visual prompts that reveal what language and frames really connect.

• Mapping emotions and attachment to place, exploring where trust, pride and concern live in a community.

• Each activity becomes an entry point to deeper conversation — a way to listen, learn and build insight from real people in real places.

 

The result is a Listening Map: a grounded picture of how your project or an issue is seen, what builds curiosity and how to frame stories that bring more people in.