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How to Conduct a Listening Tour

What Is a Listening Tour?

A listening tour is an extremely valuable tool for any new CEO (or any leader, for that matter). It involves meeting with a wide variety of people from many levels of your company. It helps you understand “the lay of the land” at your company. More specifically, it helps you:

• Gather information about what’s really happening at your company.
• Collect input on key issues you’ve identified in advance.
• Capture ideas that will move the business forward.
• Communicate key messages about the company vision and strategic future.

While a listening tour provides you with a lot of information about the company, the most important outcome of a listening tour is that it presents an opportunity for employees to get to know and trust you. If you want to be a successful CEO, people must trust you. They must believe that the company is in good hands. They want to know that you’ll be transparent, open, and authentic. They need to know that you are not the kind of person who will let them down.

Why Is It Important?

It is extremely important during a leadership transition that employees get to know you. If they don’t know you, they won’t trust you, follow you, and/or sign up for the agenda you have set.

But there’s more. When a new CEO is appointed (whether internal or external), the rumor mill goes into overdrive about the changes you might make. As one new CEO told me, “I really needed to get out into the organization to combat fake news.” In a vacuum, employees will make up all kinds of stories about who you are and what you might do as the new CEO. Most of these stories have to do with fear of change and tend to have a consistent set of themes:

• fear of reorganization and changes in reporting structures
• fear of job losses
• fear of changes in control or career opportunity

A listening tour provides the opportunity for employees to voice their fears and for you to hear and acknowledge those fears and address the fears that need to be put to rest.

One of the common mistakes a new, internal CEO makes is to assume the organization knows her. This is absolutely not the case. Employees fears about what you might do prevail over any prior knowledge of you in your previous role. You are going to have to remind them of what you stand for and who you are.

There is another issue at play here. The higher your position in the organization, the more employees (especially your “go-to” employees) will tell you what they want you to hear. Your appointment will cause “storming” at the top levels of leadership (per Tuckman’s model [1]  of group dynamics, introducing any new member to a team will initiate a period of forming/storming/norming/performing). Members of the executive team will likely be figuring out (unconsciously) their status/influence/power on your new team. Unfortunately, this means that a new leader is surrounded by people who are more reluctant to provide you with honest, relevant feedback.

If you are inheriting the CEO role from a popular CEO or if you are an outside hire, a listening tour presents you with an opportunity to “re-recruit” employees. On a very practical level, it allows you to build relationships, demonstrate your knowledge, and model a leadership style that listens. All of this builds followership and increases employee engagement.

Before You Start

I have learned that there are several “pre-listening” steps you can take to dramatically improve the impact and quality of the time you will invest in a listening tour.

First , the conventional wisdom is that a new CEO should take the first 90–100 days to listen and not make decisions. I recommend that you ignore this timeframe and guidance. You should plan to do a listening tour during your first 30 days. Also, while you should avoid making public commitments during your listening tour, you should not shy away from making pressing decisions (especially commercial or personnel decisions).

Second , consider conducting some informal web surveys before you go on your tour. Invite all employees to participate. Don’t make the survey long, but do make it democratic (i.e. open to all employees). Your corporate communications office can help you manage this process. You can isolate the survey process to business units and geographic areas to capture more “local” issues/concerns.  Note : You will need the support of a dedicated, experienced corporate communications resource to facilitate this process.

Conducting a survey in advance allows you to dig deeper in a more targeted way during your tour. You will appear to know the company’s issues and understand the organization’s problems. You can use your tour to begin to generate ideas about how to address the most common issues.

Finally , a listening tour is not about talking! Remind yourself that your goal is to listen. Don’t waste time on PowerPoint (if you must, stick to three slides with your most important messages). The biggest challenge with listening tours is that a new CEO is tempted to talk too much—after all, you want to prove that you are a worthy new leader, especially when you already have ideas about how you want to address issues. I promise that you’ll learn much more and have a much more valuable experience if you stay open and curious. It will provide you with a deeper understanding of the people in your organization and the issues they care about.

How to Conduct the Tour

You have some flexibility in how you conduct your listening tour. There are a variety of formats that might work, but there are several obvious steps to take.

• Decide who to include.  This involves thinking about locations, individuals, business units, thought leaders, etc. Sometimes you might want to do a customer listening tour (a topic for another day). This involves making a decision about who are the most important people to include  and  it also presents you with an opportunity to reach some neglected locations or parts of the business. I had a new CEO visit his IT organization in India. They had never had a visit from his predecessor. In the course of his conversations with the IT team, they convinced him that they could move the company to a new IT platform that would allow the company to lead their industry in the area of data-mining. It was time well spent.
• Let the company know your intent for the listening tour.  Explain why you are doing it, how long it will take, and where you plan to visit or not visit. If you have a global business, you might want to plan to live-stream (and record) some events. Few new CEOs have the capacity to travel to all company locations in 30 days. That said, I have had one global CEO who traveled to every location over a year-long time period. The symbolism of that commitment was not lost on employees.
• Determine the questions you want to ask in advance.  You can distribute the questions in advance to individuals or groups. You’ll have questions you want to ask everyone and other questions that are more specific. As recommended above, you can survey audiences in advance of your visit. Sending the questions in advance provides employees with an opportunity to reflect and provide more meaningful feedback. Springing questions on employees can make it feel more like a test than a genuine conversation.

In a 2017  New York Times  article, [2]  Chip Bergh, the CEO of Levi Strauss, described his listening tour as focusing on four key questions:

• What are the three things you think we have to change?
• What are the three things that we have to keep?
• What do you most want me to do?
• What are you most afraid I might do?

Of course, you can use a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) format for questions or you might have more company-specific questions. One of the most common areas to address is to determine how well strategy is understood.

You can email questions in advance, use a survey in advance, and you can have index cards available in the room for people to submit questions (just make sure that you have a good question moderator). If you are live-casting, employees can submit their questions to a moderator.

For one-on-one conversations, you’ll have more specific questions you might want to ask. I recommend also sending these questions in advance. In the one-on-one conversations, do not stick with the scripted questions! Embrace inquiry, become curious, and stay in the moment.

• Keep logistics quite simple.  Meetings should be 60–90 minutes. You can do a presentation format. You can do a coffee-talk or fireside-chat format. You can have members of your team onstage with you. One of my clients insisted that his full team be with him on stage when he presented at HQ. He took the time to introduce each team member and speak to their personal virtues and talents. It was quite effective and moving.
• Follow up with a survey.  You’ll find that the feedback is almost always overwhelmingly positive, and you’ll get some suggestions about how to improve the quality of your events. But don’t just stop there—send a follow-up note. Detail what you heard. Express gratitude. Commit to some next steps.

Finally, some practical do’s and don’ts:

• Do not check out during the breaks. That’s the time that the more introverted leaders in the group might want to check in with you.
• Pay attention to the contrarians or more controversial input—they often surface the issues that no one wants to bring to your attention.
• Be keen to identify relationships you might need to build. This is an opportunity for you to identify talent and connect with the next generation of leaders.
• In one-on-one conversations, pay close attention to why people came to work at your company and what keeps them at your company.
• Consider an annual or more targeted listening tour.

A listening tour is a terrific opportunity for the organization to get to know you and for you to get to know the organization. People really do want to know who you are and what you are about—even if they’ve worked with you for a long time. To be successful, you’ll have to be confident, open, transparent, vulnerable, and present—a tall order! Put simply, be authentic.

You can master this challenge by preparing well and being intentional, while, at the same time, avoiding being scripted or too careful. Remind people of your intent: to listen. You can tell stories about yourself and your challenges; use a story formula that is compelling and engaging. Finally, make sure that employees know that they are the everyday heroes—the heartbeat of your company.

When it’s over? Take care of yourself. These listening tours can be exhausting. Carve out time to reflect on what you heard. And ask yourself what you can do to rest or rejuvenate after the tour. As a new CEO, it’s never too early to implement good self-care practices.

[1]  Bruce W. Tuckman, “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups,”  Psychological Bulletin  63, no. 6 (1965): 384–399.

[2]  Adam Bryant, “Chip Bergh on Setting a High Bar and Holding People Accountable,”  The   New York Times , June 9, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/09/business/chip-bergh-on-setting-a-high-bar-and-holding-people-accountable.html.

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The Power of a Listening Tour

Taking time to hear employees’ concerns and ideas can help new managers and company divisions work through organizational change

Anytime Geno Cutolo takes on new responsibilities or has a new team, he finds that a listening tour is an effective way to build trust and gather data that he can use to make informed decisions.

“The higher up you are in the organization, the harder it is to get unfiltered feedback because people often just tell you what they think you want to hear,” Cutolo said. “If you listen in an open, honest and unbiased way, you can get a lot of valuable information.”

In 2022, after being appointed president of Adecco-North America, a staffing agency headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., Cutolo embarked on a 90-day listening tour during which he met with people in different roles, units and locations to get a good cross-section of experiences and opinions.

He used multiple internal and external channels to communicate where he was, what he was doing and some of what he was learning. Ultimately, this led to the redesign of Adecco’s planned reorganization to help eliminate many of the frustrations and obstacles that people had shared with him during his listening tour.

“It’s important to act on what you hear,” Cutolo said. “That’s how people know you’re listening.”

What Listening Tours Can Do

“It’s a great tool to get a pulse on what’s happening inside the company for new teams, new managers and after organizational change,” said Jennifer Dulski, founder and CEO of Rising Team, a distributed team performance platform based in Silicon Valley. “The goal is to understand what is going well, what can be improved and what is missing.”

Dulski developed a three-step process that can be used as a framework for a listening tour:

• Just listen. “To be done well, there has to be a psychologically safe environment,” she noted. Employees have to know there won’t be any retribution and that the information will be used with good intent.
• Report back. After conducting meetings with employees (or other stakeholders), tour leaders need to report back to participants about what they learned during the tour so that participants know they have been heard.
• Share solutions. After analyzing the data, leaders need to let participants know what actions they are taking to address any issues and, if appropriate, engage them in coming up with solutions.

Listening tours are often used by new managers when starting a new job or leading a new team.

“For a new manager, it’s an opportunity to meet people early on and establish the principles of the relationship. It’s a chance to learn who they are, what’s important to them, how they do their jobs and what they expect from a leader,” said Joe Galvin, chief research officer at Vistage Worldwide, a coaching and peer advisory organization headquartered in San Diego, Calif.

“It’s best for managers to meet face to face with their team members, but that’s not always practical in a remote or hybrid environment. You have to meet people where they are,” he added.

The Role of HR

HR has a pivotal role to play in the formation and implementation of listening tours:

• Providing leaders and managers with data, resources and training.
• Running their own listening tours.
• Developing and implementing HR-related solutions based on feedback gained during the tour.

Kelly Wells’ most recent listening tour started eight months ago when she accepted a new position as the vice president of HR in the Airport Lounges vertical at Sodexo, a French food services and facilities management company.

Wells and her colleagues dedicated time with a cross-section of employees and clients in various formats (small focus groups, one-on-ones and town halls) to learn about operational challenges, cultural dynamics, organizational climate and employee morale.

After analyzing the insights, she and her team established three Employee Advisory Councils composed of employees, managers and an HR representative and empowered them to implement solutions. The next employee engagement survey showed a 10 percent increase in employee engagement scores.

At Safeguard Global, a professional employer organization headquartered in Austin, Texas, the HR team conducts annual listening tours to dig into information gleaned from their engagement surveys.

“At its most basic level, it’s about the employee experience—a way for us to learn about the ideas they have for innovation and the obstacles and challenges they face,” said Chief People Officer Katherine Loranger. “Beyond that, it can be effective when there’s a change in business or to the way people do business. The purpose of the tour drives the agenda.”

During the tour, leaders are separated from their teams to ensure that employees feel safe to share their feelings and opinions. The HR team then meets one on one with team leaders.

“It’s important for us to connect the tour to the value of caring,” Loranger said.

During last year’s tour, the HR team discovered that their European teams were concerned about heating bills in the winter and other rising costs associated with inflation. The company subsequently decided to offer those employees a monthly stipend during the winter to offset those costs.

“It wouldn’t have happened without the firsthand information about how inflation was impacting those employees,” Loranger said.

The tour has also enabled the HR team to position itself as a trusted employee advocate. “It’s not enough for HR to have an ‘open door’ policy. We have to be proactive by reaching out to people directly,” Loranger said.

Align The Tour with Organizational Values and Culture

“You have to be prepared for hard truths and to act on what you hear. It’s not a box-checking exercise. If you don’t mean it, don’t do it,” said Lorna Borenstein, CEO and founder of Grokker, a corporate well-being platform headquartered in San Francisco, and author of It’s Personal: The Business Case for Caring (Grokker Innovation Labs Press, 2021).

At Grokker, active listening is a fundamental part of the culture, and listening tours are connected to the values of caring and accountability. “Our company's purpose is corporate well-being. It’s important to show our employees we care about their well-being, too,” Borenstein said.

Listening tours can also bring clarity and comfort during stressful transitions. While working as the president and COO of the global social activism platform Change.org, Dulski and her senior leadership team found themselves in the unenviable position of having to lay people off.

After the layoffs, Dulski conducted a massive multi-country tour to grasp the impact on the remaining employees. As she listened to their stories, she understood how much they wanted and needed to be heard.

“We realized that we needed to work to build back their trust,” Dulski said. To accomplish that goal, they decided to be more transparent about their financial situation. “It helped employees understand why the decision to lay people off was made.”

Maximizing the Impact

When Nikhil Arora took over as CEO of Epignosis in December 2023, he immediately launched a series of monthly listening tours from the learning software company’s London headquarters.

Arora has found that “the byproduct of active listening is always growth and learning” and that “listening tours humanize the way that leaders gather feedback.”

Each tour is a combination of small-group skip-level meetings with employees from different functions and department lines and one-on-one meetings with other employees, customers and shareholders.

Arora reports back to employees on Fridays by video and in writing about how he spent his week and conducts periodic town halls to share what he has learned. While he recognizes that this requires a deep commitment of time and energy, he firmly believes that it is well worth the effort because of the myriad benefits that it yields:

• Community and connection that keep employees (and other stakeholders) motivated and engaged.
• Ideas for innovation and identification of outmoded ideas that need to be eliminated.
• An accelerated learning curve and culture of lean experimentation.

As the company grows, he hopes that other senior leaders will recognize the value of listening tours and follow his lead.

“I think of it as a muscle that needs to be used by all managers and leaders in the organization,” Arora said. “But you have to believe in it. If you don’t believe in it, it doesn’t matter.”

Arlene Hirsch is a career counselor and author based in Chicago.

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Whitney Sieck, CPTD

• Jul 20, 2020

The Ultimate Listening Tour

Updated: Apr 28, 2021

I once made a shift between competitive organizations in the same industry. It would have been so easy for me to come in and simply duplicate the same program - yet, after a few instrumental 1:1s, I quickly realized that approach would not resonate with the culture at the second company. By giving myself some time to deeply understand the challenges and speak the language of the teams I was supporting, I was able to create a strategic framework that was right for that unique business culture.

Purpose of Listening Tour

A listening tour is a series of intentional interviews with your colleagues to gather information, insights and ideas on how your role can be most effective. A listening tour allows the team to contribute their perspective in a crucial time where a new enablement leader will be defining strategy - something that should never be done in a vacuum!

You'll likely be provided with a list of key 1:1s. Don't be afraid to reach beyond that for a more diverse perspective . Employees and leaders have different vantage points of an organization, so it's important to take a multi-level approach. Consider cross-functional partners as Enablement often supports the efficiency of the joints/handoffs of the customer journey.

Be consistent - ask the same high-level questions to all parties so you can start to see trends in responses. Determine these questions in advance and add them to the agenda so your partners recognize that this conversation is more than just the traditional "get-to-know-you" first 1:1 they may be used to. You may want to layer in more specific questions based on how closely you'll interact with the role.

Check out this template for some additional inspiration!

Pair the anecdotal feedback with a quantitative data report to understand where there may be disconnects - surfacing conflicting information can be as beneficial as surfacing trends. Partner with someone from Revenue Operations to support this part of your Listening Tour. (See my previous blog on Data Strategy to learn more about what intel to gather!)

Present the results and gain alignment on the perspective. Ensure key stakeholders understand the insights shared and focus on how these interact with any initiatives/priorities that are in flight.

By conducting a listening tour, you gain a comprehensive view on where the enablement function can add value. You establish credibility as a collaborative cross-functional leader. Finally, you inform a strategic roadmap that aligns with what's important to the business.

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How To Take a Listening Tour

By  PRIME CHIEF OF STAFF

February 28, 2019

When beginning your Chief of Staff role, we encourage following the Dale Carnegie approach of listening first. Whether you are a current or new employee, spending ample time observing and learning from your colleagues sets a strong precedent for your role—it creates open lines of communication, provides context, and builds stronger relationships.

What is a listening tour? A listening tour is a series of active conversations with your colleagues to gather information, insights, context, and new ideas on how your role can be most effective. Diving into your new Chief of Staff role without input from others can lead to serious consequences later. 

While a listening tour opens the door for communication and conversation, it is also an opportunity for you to better define and explain your role. Of course, you don’t know all the ins and outs of your role at the start, but you can share what you do know to create clarity and assuage concerns.

1.       Determine Your Audience

First, understand whom you need to talk to. Most often, listening tours are conducted with those who work closest with you and your leader. You’ve likely had several conversations with your leader already, and those should continue. Conversations with his/her direct reports and members of the leadership team are important as well. We also recommend going beyond the leadership team to feel the pulse of the organization. Speaking to middle managers can often uncover information different from what you hear from SVPs. Gather a list of approximately 8-10 people for your first listening tour.

2.       Communicate Your Purpose

Before embarking on your conversations, it is helpful to provide context and rationale for your efforts. Give your colleagues an opportunity to reflect and make the most of the conversation by sending a communication about your goal with the listening tour. Something like, “As a new Chief of Staff, I want to take adequate time at the start of this role to understand the unique needs and challenges of our organization. Therefore, I ask for your insights, ideas, and perspectives and will be scheduling time on each of your calendars over the next few weeks. I am hopeful that our dialogue will help ensure the effectiveness of my role and benefit all of us.”

3.       Prepare Your Questions

As any strong Chief of Staff knows, it is important to be prepared. Therefore, make sure you have an overall goal and direction for each conversation. Remember, these conversations should flow naturally and not feel like an interrogation of your colleagues. You needn’t ask the same questions of everyone. Some may have specific challenges to discuss with you and others may ask, “What exactly will you do in this role?” Although you should be doing more listening than talking in these conversations, remember that people will want to learn more about the decision behind creating your new position. Asking your colleagues, “What were your initial thoughts or concerns when you learned about this Chief of Staff role?” can be a great way to break the ice on any confusion or concern they may have.

4.       Listen

This is a listening tour, not a political rally. You must listen closely to what your colleagues are saying in every conversation. Probe their responses to get to the heart of what they are telling you, but do so respectfully. Ask a question and stop talking. Be attentive and active in your listening.

5.       Keep Listening

The purpose of the listening tour is not “one and done.” Through your initial listening, you create an open line of communication with your colleagues, and it is important for you to continue to listen throughout your role, not only at the beginning. This is a critical step that cannot be overlooked. Take time regularly to have informal conversations with your colleagues beyond scheduled one-on-ones or leadership team meetings. Circle back on topics addressed during your conversations to show you were paying attention and you are working to enhance your work environment.

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• 📄 Guide: Evaluate your culture: a "Listening Tour"

Guide: Evaluate your culture: a "Listening Tour"

Throughout my career, I’ve observed that the most successful leaders never underestimate the power of being an exceptional listener. Truly great leaders commit to continuous growth in the art of listening throughout their careers. 

I’ve developed this list of questions over the years to holistically assess organizations (or, “organisms” as I like to think of them). I typically use a set of these questions for my onboarding tour when I join a company as head of people, and I’m sharing it here because I imagine it could be useful for any sort of listening tour that a leader may want to take.

Safety First!

Step one of a successful listening tour is to create a sense of clarity and safety around what you’re doing and why. Keep in mind that there are power dynamics at play and if you’re in a senior-level role there will be a power differential that will impact the conversation. Consider sharing your questions with folks a few days before the meetings so they have time to process their answers in advance. Some people love spontaneous questions and feel confident when they’re put on the spot, but the majority of us value time to do some internal processing in advance of an important conversation.

Here’s a simple slack or email script to get you started:

Hi @Name, just a heads up that I’m scheduling an onboarding 1-1 for us and I look forward to answering any questions you might have. I also wanted to share a list of questions that I’m asking folks in advance of our meeting (see below). Please note that I won’t be sharing any specific details of our conversation with anyone - the spirit of these meetings is for us to get to know one another and for me to identify themes that might help refine our people strategy. I’ll be sharing out a high-level summary of themes after I’ve met with everyone. You’re welcome to share your answers in advance in a google document, or, I can scribe some notes during our meeting. And if there are any questions you’d rather not answer just say “pass” and we’ll skip them. :) I’m looking forward to connecting with you soon...and if you need anything in the meantime please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Questions For Everyone

What, if any, questions do you have for me?

Why did you join this company? 

What keeps you here? 

What would entice you to leave? This could be something that would pull you toward another company or push you away

What really drives you to do the work you do now? Mining for intrinsic motivation

What’s your top personal core value?  If they don’t know, ask them what pisses them off most in this world? The opposite of the upsetting behavior is usually something that points to top value.

How are you most often misperceived?

Can you tell me a little bit about the highest impact work your team is doing right now?

What do you see as the top strengths of the organization that we want to preserve as we grow and change?

What can you share about the leadership style here? Is it collaborative? 

How does decision making work around here?

What can you share about how things are successfully implemented here? ex.  Habits / communication approaches / norms 

What do you wish was different?  From your vantage point, what might be stopping us from being as good as we can be? Are there any organizational blind spots?

What advice do you have for me?

What, if anything, do you need right now?

Questions For People Managers (all questions above, plus…)

Tell me about how your team is structured - i.e. the current state

Who’s doing well? How are you recognizing them? Mine for understanding of knowledge of folks preferences around recognition

Who’s struggling? For people who are struggling, how have you addressed it? Where is feedback being documented?

What are you doing to gel the team? Testing for gaps in leads’ understanding of their ICs’ personal aspirations, strengths/weaknesses 

What do you envision the future state of your team looks like 12 months from now? Mining for gaps on Capacity (right people in right roles to deliver on commitments)Capability (already have it, need to buy it, build it, borrow it?)Culture (team’s collective attitudes, assumptions, practices enable their best work)

Historically, what have been the change management approaches used? What worked? What didn’t?

What resources or support do you need to feel better equipped as a manager?

What have you gotten feedback on in the past?

What are your preferences on communication channels?  ex. Do you prefer slack for quick questions, and texts for anything urgent outside of typical work hours? Emails for longer communications? Phone? Video?

Questions For Leadership Team Members (all questions above, plus)

What are the top 5 most important work activities or key processes? How would you prioritize the single most important work activity? 2nd and 3rd? How well are these key processes working together? Mining for the top processes that we need to be the best in the world at in order to achieve our mission. Usually, these are cross-functional. As a leader, you want to ensure you’re building the organization in a way that supports these key activities. Mining for alignment on what is most important versus process/activities that aren’t differentiators.Mining for what is broken.Ex. An airline might say that the top 3 most important activities are safety, customer service, and workplace communication and culture.

What needs to happen in the next 6-12 months for the company to be successful? What does this mean for staffing?

What is our biggest strength from a Talent Acquisition perspective? The biggest challenge in terms of accelerating our ability to hire?

What skills and capabilities are we missing?

What do people value most in terms of our total rewards? Ex. intrinsic rewards, cash compensation, benefits, equity, recognition programs, support for learning and growth 

What’s our biggest pain point in terms of rewards right now?

How can we better leverage culture as a strategic asset?

What organizational health metrics are most important to you?

How do you define success for diversity, equity and inclusion?

What would you like to see accomplished through our DEI work?

What makes you trust someone? Conversely, what causes you to lose trust?

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Six Keys to a Successful Listening Tour

Effective new managers often go on a “listening tour” for the first 30-60 days . A listening tour is a set period of time where the new manager meets with as many key stakeholders as possible to ask questions, hear concerns, identify barriers, and build rapport. The goal of the listening tour is very simple- just listen. But a listening tour is most effective when it is approached strategically. Here are six tips for completing a successful listening tour:

• On day one, state explicitly that you plan to go on a listening tour. Explain what a listening tour is, why you’re choosing that approach, and how long you expect the listening tour to last. By stating your plans explicitly, it opens the door for team members and key stakeholders to share information they believe is valuable. You’ve informed them that you’re there to listen, and they know you’re open to hearing their ideas. Additionally, it adjusts team members expectations, so they won’t wonder why you haven’t made more decisions or shared any planned changes yet.
• Don’t make any decisions or promises. One of the hardest aspects of the listening tour is reserving judgment. There will be moments when you hear things that seem illogical or are completely in conflict with your management style, and you’ll be tempted to reassure team members that things will be different with you. While there are certainly times you could make decisions without consequence, you want to avoid the risk of making a promise you can’t keep. Without knowing all the complexities of the role, business, relationships, etc, it is too easy to make a promise you’ll have to break once you gather more information. While the main goal of the listening tour is just to listen, every conversation is an opportunity to build trust and credibility. You’ll be more respected for committing to investigate a situation further than you would be for promising to fix a problem you can’t solve.
• Meet with each person one-on-one. Depending on the size of the team, this could take quite a bit of time. But it will be time well spent. In group meetings, some individuals will be less likely to share their thoughts and others will dominate the discussion. Additionally, it’s harder to build personal rapport with people in a group setting.
• Be sensitive to team members’ baggage. It’s possible your predecessor wasn’t the best match for the team. Perhaps they were ineffective or worse- toxic. Your new employees may have very low trust and be highly skeptical of anyone coming in. Or they may want to dive deep into the awful experiences they’ve had before you joined the team. This can be especially difficult in the context of a listening tour. Naturally, you’ve expressed a desire to listen, but not all of the information shared will be helpful or even healthy. Listen and be sensitive to the stories each team member shares. Treat them the same way you would treat anyone who has been through some form of trauma. But ask them to commit to looking forward with you. When possible (and appropriate) help guide each team member into sharing experiences along with solutions and/or suggestions for the future. This will help everyone express their frustrations, but guide them on a new positive journey together.
• Meet with as many people as possible. In each listening tour, be sure to ask “Who else do you suggest I meet with?” The additional conversations that branch off of each stakeholder conversation will give you a fast pass for understanding the inner workings of the organization and relationships. Identifying key strategic relationships and learning how to leverage them will make you a more effective manager and also raise your overall visibility in the organization.
• Finally, share your observations. Once the listening tour is over, gather your team together and share what you learned. Check your conclusions with the team and be open to hearing their reactions. At this stage, it still may be too early to commit to specific plans, but it is helpful to share your vision, share where you plan to investigate more, and share which barriers you believe you can remove. And finally, even though you’re concluding the official “listening tour” in a transparent way by sharing your observations, commit to continuing thoughtful listening behaviors going forward.

The listening tour is a technique that is effective specifically for managers in transition, but the behaviors are valuable every day throughout the management experience.

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Taylor Swift releases ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ double album ahead of Record Store Day: Highlights

Catch up on all things 'The Tortured Poets Department':

• Fans celebrated Swift's midnight release of "The Tortured Poets Department" with listening parties and themed gatherings . Many critics praised Swift in their reviews.
• Swift surprised fans at 2 a.m. ET with news of 15 extra songs.
• The album features collaborations with Post Malone and Florence + the Machine. Swift described writing the album as deeply personal. "Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it," she said.
• NBC News' resident Swifties stayed up to blog the biggest takeaways after the album's release.

Vinyl industry rep says pandemic-era manufacturing bottlenecks have eased

"The Tortured Poets Department" is set to be released in special-edition "ghost"-colored vinyl, available both directly through Swift's website and exclusively at Target.

During the pandemic, that might have alarmed vinyl record buyers. As vinyl plants shuttered and employees were sidelined, vinyl production ground to a halt, causing reports of weekslong backlogs and orders going unfulfilled outright.

But in an interview with NBC News on Friday, Dustin Blocker, president of the Vinyl Records Manufacturing Association, said those issues have been resolved and that suppliers now have more than enough capacity to handle any orders coming their way, including massive ones like Swift's.

"In Q3 2023, we saw the [production] timeline start to go back to normal," Blocker said. "And in Q4 it really got back to normal. Now, everyone, including the huge plants, takes only 8-12 weeks [to produce] ... so it's very good news for everyone."

Blocker said any price increases on the supply side sparked by the bottlenecks have essentially reversed.

So, the $40 price tag on the Target edition of "TTPD" is most likely the result of choices made by Swift, her label and the retailer, he said.

Jack Antonoff is sharing BTS pics

Saba Hamedy

Jack Antonoff is giving Swifties what they want: more content.

The Bleachers frontman, who is also Swift’s longtime collaborator and friend, shared pictures of Swift and collaborators on the album, including Florence Welch .

The acting U.S. secretary of labor has a question for Taylor

Acting U.S. Labor Department Secretary Julie Su has a key question for Taylor Swift and her "Tortured Poets Department":

"Is this department unionized?" she wrote in a post on X .

Su, 55, has served as acting secretary since March 2023; she has faced stumbling blocks to being confirmed full time for the role over her perceived pro-union bias .

Destin celebrates Swift shoutout

Nicole Duarte

The city of Destin, Florida, is here for the Swiftie boost.

Google searches for the beach town shot up minutes after Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” was released. The album mentions Destin in the song “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + The Machine.

The city is celebrating the shoutout:

As is Destin's mayor:

Trump gets a question on Taylor

Vaughn Hillyard

A reporter who is part of the pool following Donald Trump on Friday at his hush money trial was able to get in a question to the former president about the new albums.

Trump didn't engage.

Taylor Swift reveals ‘Dateline’ as an inspiration for ‘Florida!!!’

Maddie Ellis, TODAY

Taylor Swift has taken over radio stations, from Channel 13 on SiriusXM to iHeartRadio briefly renaming itself to iHeartTaylor and sharing messages from the songwriter.

Swift revealed in a soundbite played on iHeartRadio that “Florida!!!” — the eighth track of the album and featuring Florence + the Machine — was inspired by “Dateline.”

“I’m always watching, like ‘Dateline,’” Swift said with a laugh. “People, you know, have these crimes that they commit where they immediately skip town and go to Florida. They try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in.”

It’s the same with heartbreak, she said.

“I think when you go through a heartbreak, there’s a part of you that thinks, ‘I want a new name. I want a new life,’” she said.

Or perhaps in Swift’s case — a new era?

Read more at TODAY.com.

The double album appeared to avoid leaks

Kaetlyn Liddy

The standard edition of "The Tortured Poets Department" is said to have been leaked ahead the album's release. The origin of the apparent leaks is unclear, but none of the songs on the extended "anthology" version of the album seem to have been compromised.

Leaks of major artists' work sometimes occur when physical copies of the album arrive prematurely at record stores or department stores, before the tracks are released on streaming platforms. Fans suspect the surprise drop of the double album was a factor in the 15 extra tracks avoiding leaks.

The extra content was so unexpected that the lyrics of the anthology version have yet to be uploaded to Spotify .

‘The Tortured Poets Department’ broke a Spotify record in 12 hours

"The Tortured Poets Department" is already Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day this year, edging out Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" in less than 12 hours, Spotify confirmed to NBC News.

Swift currently holds the all-time record for most streams in a day by album and by artist for 2022's "Midnights."

Who are The Blue Nile? About the Scottish band named by Swift

In the album's ninth track — "Guilty as Sin?" — Swift name-drops a beloved '80s Scottish band, The Blue Nile.

"Drowning in The Blue Nile. He sent me 'Downtown Lights.' I hadn’t heard it in a while," Swift says in the song.

"Downtown Lights," released in 1989, was the peak of The Blue Nile's commercial success in the U.S., with the song reaching No. 10 on the Billboard American Modern Rock Tracks chart. 1989 is also Swift's birth year and the title of her fifth studio album.

Known for their avoidance of publicity, The Blue Nile has released just four albums since forming in 1981.

Fans share their theories and joy on social media

It wouldn't be a new Taylor Swift album without fans wondering who it's about or decoding the names mentioned in each song. (Who is Cassandra , Taylor?)

That speculation will surely continue, but now that the album is out, fans can't believe their luck. Reactions on social media praised the sonic and lyrical range of the album, saying that "everybody gets everything," whether you listen to Swift for her synth-pop hits or her intimate folk songs.

Author and creator John Green couldn't wait to wake up his daughter to tell her she gets 31 new Taylor Swift songs today.

By the numbers: Will Taylor Swift break her own album sales marks?

Dania Kalaji

“The Tortured Poets Department” blasted to No. 1 on the U.S. iTunes album sales chart following its release. But will it live up to the success of her previous discography?

Here are all of Swift’s bestselling albums in the U.S. ranked to date, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America.

“Fearless” (2008): 10 million units

“1989” (2014): 9 million units

“Red” (2012): 7 million units

“Taylor Swift” (2006): 7 million units

“Speak Now” (2010): 6 million units

“Reputation” (2017): 3 million units

“Lover” (2019): 3 million units

“Midnights” (2022): 2 million units

“Folklore” (2020): 2 million units

“The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection” (2008): 1 million units

“Evermore” (2020): 1 million units

TikTok rolls out new features to celebrate new album

Daysia Tolentino

As Swifties show their love for "The Tortured Poets Department" on TikTok, they have the chance to be featured in a "Fan Spotlight" carousel that highlights videos with the #TORTUREDPOETSDEPARTMENT hashtag.

TikTok released a "Taylor Swift In-App Experience" that serves as a landing page for all things "TTPD." Fans can complete challenges in exchange for limited-edition "TTPD" profile frames and some Taylor-related searches unlock animations inspired by the album. Searches for "Taylor Swift," "Taylor Nation," and "The Tortured Poets Department" lead fans to the landing page.

The features are particularly notable because Swift's music was pulled off the platform earlier this year as part of a disput between TikTok and Universal Music Group, though many of her tracks returned earlier this month .

Fans on TikTok have already been loving "TTPD," sharing numerous theories , tears and rankings .

Swift's song 'Fortnight' with Post Malone hits No. 1 on Apple

Jason Abbruzzese

That didn't take long.

The song "Fornight" off Swift's new album quickly hit No. 1 on Apple's top song chart. It features rapper and singer Post Malone.

Swift also took the next four spots with "The Tortured Poets Department," "So Long, London," "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toy," and "Down Bad."

The National's Aaron Dessner on working with Swift: 'some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic' songs

Aaron Dessner, a musician who is part of the rock band The National, posted to Instagram about working with Swift on the album along with a pic of her in a studio.

He said that he has now worked with swift on more than 60 songs, including 17 across her newest release.

"I am forever grateful to Taylor for sharing her insane talents with and trusting me with her music. I believe these songs are some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic Taylor has ever written and I am continually astonished by her skills as a songwriter and performer," he wrote, adding in thanks to a long list of other artists and producers.

Will Swift break her own streaming records?

The October 2022 release of Swift's 10th studio album, "Midnights" shattered records on Spotify and Apple Music.

"Midnights" became Spotify's most-streamed album in a single day with 184.6 million streams when it debuted. Swift also broke the record for most-streamed artist in a single day on Spotify with 228 million streams.

The album also become the biggest album of all time by a female artist in Apple Music history by first-day and first-week streams worldwide.

Can Swift outdo herself?

Will Swift's album inspire a new college course?

As Swift became increasingly synonymous with American pop culture, universities around the country started creating entire courses dedicated to studying her lyricism and impact.

Some courses focus on Swift as a business and marketing mastermind, while others analyze her storytelling techniques with all the detail and skill of poetry analysis.

Time will tell whether this new album will inspire yet another college course. Our guess is with all the literary references, it's sure to be on some professors minds.

Read more in NBC News' article here .

Saturday is Record Store Day

The release of "The Tortured Poets Department" will come just in time for a notable day in the music industry calendar: Record Store Day on April 20. The annual event has been observed since 2007 to celebrate independent record stores and is often accompanied by exclusive drops by major artists.

Swift has yet to announce a special event, but the date is marked in the TTPD Timetable on her Instagram, suggesting she might have something up her sleeve.

Swift describes new album: 'Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.'

Patrick Smith

Taylor Swift has offered fans a glimpse into the creative process behind "The Tortured Poets Society" and the emotions that inspired it.

In a press release Friday morning to accompany the new release, the artist said:

"The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time — one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.

"This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.

"This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.

"And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry."

To sleep or stream? Swifties question staying up even later

Can you wait until the morning to listen to the 15 extra songs on Swift's anthology?

If you answered no, you're not alone. Online, fans joked that they didn't expect to get this little shut eye.

Among the fans: Gen Z Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla.

"I got votes in the morning. Do I sleep or listen" he wrote .

Others had similar thoughts.

"TAYLOR I HAVE A JOB OH MY GOD" wrote one fan, tagging the artist on X .

"lol Taylor I have to get up early to run errands before work please" wrote another X user.

Leave it to Swift to give us adrenaline to keep us all up a little longer.

'The Tortured Poets Department' becomes Swift's longest album

With the surprise release of 15 additional songs, "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" has 31 tracks.

That now makes it Swift's longest album, edging ahead of "Red (Taylor's Version)" by just one track.

A list of all 15 of the extra 'Anthology' songs

• “The Black Dog”
• “imgonnagetyouback”
• “The Albatross”
• “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus”
• “How Did It End?”
• “So High School”
• “I Hate It Here”
• “thanK you aiMee”
• “I Look in People’s Windows”
• “The Prophecy”
• “Cassandra”
• “The Bolter”
• “The Manuscript”

Surprise: a double album!

"The Tortured Poets Department" is a secret DOUBLE album.

In a 2 a.m. ET surprise, Swift announced an extra 15 songs.

"I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology," she wrote on X . "15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours."

It's 2 a.m.

Now what, Taylor?

ICYMI: Swift's powerhouse publicist Tree Paine gets profiled by WSJ

Swift's longtime publicist, Tree Paine, whom many fans know by name, was the subject of a lengthy Wall Street Journal article published Thursday ahead of the new album's release.

While she declined to be interviewed for the story, it delves into how she became one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry since she joined Swift's camp in 2014.

“There isn’t a publicist in NY, LA or Nashville that wouldn’t jump at an opportunity to work with someone as talented as Taylor Swift and her management team,” Paine said at the time, according to the New York Post .

Read the full story here.

Couples are now wary of Swift's 'Lover' as a love song

Elena Nicolaou, TODAY

“Lover” — at least until recently — was widely received as one of Swift’s classic love songs. When the album of the same name came out in 2019, its title single was declared  first dance song material , or even a “ wedding waltz .”

In the song, Swift paints a portrait of quiet intimacy. Her wild “Red” days, of thrilling romances with highs and lows and uncertainties in between, had settled into something steadier with one person, captured by a simple chorus: “You’re my, my, my, my lover.”

But that interpretation is now in question, as Swift recasts some of her songs in a different light. Ahead of the release of “The Tortured Poets Department,”  she released five playlists on Apple Music , sorting old songs into groups inspired by the five stages of grief, or “heartbreak.”

Aaron Dessner is credited as a songwriter on five of 16 tracks

Dessner, who is a member of the bands The National and Big Red Machine, is one of two producers who worked on "The Tortured Poets Department."

He's credited as a songwriter on five of the 16 tracks on the standard album.

Dessner first collaborated with Swift on her eighth studio album, “Folklore,” for which he shared in the Grammy win for album of the year. He made several guest appearances with Swift on the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour, joining her onstage during the acoustic set for performances of songs they wrote together.

Here's what some critics are saying in their reviews

Angela Yang

The critics have spoken. Here's a roundup of some of their takeaways on "The Tortured Poets Department."

Billboard ’s Jason Lipshutz praised Swift’s boldness for releasing a “knowingly messy, wildly unguarded breakup album” at what’s arguably the peak of her career. It's more mature than her past heartbreak albums, he writes, and “not everyone will love it, but the ones who get it will adore it fiercely.”

Variety ’s Chris Willman wrote that the album can serve as an “unapologetically dramatic” soundtrack to listeners’ own heartbreaks.

Labeling it Swift’s most personal album yet, Rolling Stone ’s Rob Sheffield described it as “the cathartic confession of a woman who thought she had adulthood — and adult romance — all figured out, only to find herself realizing she knows nothing.”

And unlike on past albums, Swift doesn’t portray herself as a victim in this one, wrote the Los Angeles Times ’ Mikael Wood. Instead, the album emanates “a proudly villainous energy as Swift embraces her messiest and most chaotic tendencies.”

Jack Antonoff, Swift's longtime collaborator, posts love for album

Antonoff, Swift’s longtime collaborator and friend, shared his love for the new album on X .

"Love this album more than I can say," wrote Antonoff, who worked on “The Tortured Poets Department” as a producer.

Antonoff also co-wrote eight of the album's tracks.

Swifties are starting to post reax on X

In typical fashion after a Swift album drops, reactions from fans are pouring in online, and they TEND TO COME IN ALL CAPS.

As any Swiftie will tell you, listening to new music from the artist always proves to be a collective emotional experience.

Spotify appears to be holding it together (so far)

The last time Swift debuted a brand-new album, Spotify crashed. No major issues so far this time around.

Shoutout to the engineers and people behind the scenes who are probably working overtime to make sure Swifties don't panic.

We have a new countdown

Don’t go to bed yet! Taylor Swift’s Instagram page is displaying a new countdown to 2 a.m. ET. This wasn't on the timetable ...

Swift releases statement after album drop

In her first social media post after “The Tortured Poets Department” was released, Swift shared a statement about the album online.

These songs reflect her experiences from a moment in time that was equally “sensational and sorrowful,” she wrote, adding that it is a chapter now closed.

“Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it,” Swift wrote. “And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”

Who is Clara Bow?

Daniel Arkin

The 16th and final track on the album is named for Clara Bow, one of the leading lights of Hollywood’s silent era.

Bow, unlike a lot of stars from the 1920s, managed to successfully pivot to roles in talkies by the end of the decade. She co-starred in “Wings” (1927), which today is probably best known as the first movie to win the Oscar for best picture.

I’m not a Swiftie, so I don’t have much insight into how Taylor’s music connects to Bow’s acting career — but I’m curious how this track will be interpreted by the die-hards.

The album is here

BRB, we’re busy listening with the rest of y’all.

You can now choose a Swift-themed chat for your Instagram DMs

Instagram users can now set their direct message conversations to a new chat theme inspired by “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Bars, venues hold special Swift parties

On the eve of Swift’s album drop, event venues across the country (and around the world) hosted release parties so Swifties could get their first listen of the “The Tortured Poets Department” on the dance floor.

At Pianos in New York, music from across Swift’s discography will play until the new album drops at midnight. Attendees are encouraged to come in themed outfits and friendship bracelets, and the bar will be serving Swift-inspired cocktails.

In Los Angeles, El Cid is hosting a listening party complete with fan-made merch, giveaways and a themed wall for photos. Attendees can also expect performances from drag queen Jade Jolie, who appeared in Swift’s “You Need to Calm Down” music video.

Several Swiftie-themed events are also being held across the Washington, D.C., area, according to The Washington Post, which compiled a list .

A Swiftie mom and daughter are hosting their own album party

Kristie Gilmore, 36, is ready to celebrate with her daughter, who was born shortly after Swift's “1989” album and has been a Swiftie ever since.

Gilmore decorated her Boston-area apartment with balloons, signs and stickers in the color palette of “The Tortured Poets Department.” She sprinkled the table with handmade confetti of the album’s logo and made TTPD-themed “membership cards” for themselves and each of her daughter’s friends.

“They’ve been counting down since Taylor announced this album,” Gilmore said, adding, “They’re just hanging out, having a dance party. They’re gonna try to stay up till midnight and listen to it.”

What are the track lengths?

The average track length on “The Tortured Poets Department” is 4 minutes and 4 seconds, making it the third longest album across Swift’s discography.

The longest song is “But Daddy I Love Him,” which clocks in at 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

“I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” is the shortest song, at 2 minutes and 36 seconds.

Travis Kelce shared his early thoughts about the album

Ahead of the Super Bowl, Swift's boyfriend, Travis Kelce, the star tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, weighed in on the new album.

“I have heard some of it, yes. It is unbelievable,”  Kelce said . “I can’t wait for her to shake up the world when it finally drops.”

The couple , who have become the internet's favorite love story , were most recently spotted at Coachella 's first weekend.

Taylor Swift beat reporter speaks to NBC's Hallie Jackson

USA Today’s Taylor Swift reporter , Bryan West, spoke with NBC News about the album drop and all the Easter eggs being spotted by fans.

Swift's music is back on TikTok despite UMG dispute

Kalhan Rosenblatt

Some songs that Swift fans know “All Too Well” returned to TikTok this month, months after they were removed.

The songs were among the many tracks Universal Music Group pulled off TikTok after the label and the platform  failed to reach an agreement  this year. (UMG has no relationship to NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News.)

UMG, known as one of the “Big Three” global music companies, cleared its music from TikTok in late January, saying it was doing so because of a lack of compensation for artists and songwriters. TikTok previously fired back at UMG, accusing the company of putting “their own greed above the interests of artists and songwriters.”

The economics of 'The Tortured Poets Department'

Doha Madani

Die-hard Taylor Swift fans will be spending a pretty penny on her latest album release as she releases four variants of the album with one exclusive track each.

Each variant of “The Tortured Poets Department” is named after the bonus song found at the end of the album: “The Manuscript,” “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog.” If a fan wanted to collect them all, the minimum for $13.99 CDs at a store would cost at least $55.96 before taxes.

Longtime Swifties are already familiar with her tendency to provide deluxe editions, as anyone who was around for her original “1989” release can recall the Target exclusive that included three bonus tracks and three voice memos recorded by Swift. 

Her “Midnights” release included a Target exclusive track that was added to streaming only months later, and in May she released a new song on “Midnights (The Late Night Edition).” But this is the first time Swift has put an exclusive song on each individual variant, with no clear timeline for when they might be added to streaming. 

2024: The year of Post Malone and the pop girlies

Rebecca Cohen

Fresh off of a collab with Beyoncé on "LEVII'S JEANS" from her now-famed "Cowboy Carter," Post Malone finds himself on another major release of 2024: Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department."

He joins Swift on the album's first song, "Fortnight." Swift announced that "Fortnight" would be the album's lead single and the song for which she is releasing a music video 8 o'clock tomorrow night.

"I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever," Swift wrote on social media. "I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on Fortnight."

While best known for more rap-focused songs, Post Malone is clearly making the rounds in the pop music scene, having also recently collaborated with Noah Kahan on "Dial Drunk." But his back-to-back appearances on arguably two of the biggest albums from pop artists this year raise the questions: Is Post Malone becoming a pop girlie? Is he just having a moment? Or is it all of the above?

There's a book about Swift's impact headed to bookshelves

Rolling Stone writer and music historian Rob Sheffield's book "Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music" will debut Nov. 12.

He's expected to dive further into Swift’s music and fan connection.

Swifties are celebrating with their own listening parties

Many Swifties are sharing their elaborate party setups online as they prepare to celebrate the album release at home.

Karen Rothdeutsch, 25, has decked out her bedroom in upstate New York with “The Tortured Poets Department”-themed decorations, complete with a platter of homemade cupcakes decorated to match Swift’s various vinyl variants.

“I just made my space a little more immersive for my first listen,” Rothdeutsch told NBC News. “I’ll be sitting in my bed with a box of tissues and a notebook, writing down my thoughts and probably checking into Twitter every so often to see what everybody’s thinking about it.”

She said she procured the decorations over the course of several weeks, but the whole setup cost her less than $100. While she decorates on a budget, she said she did splash out on the vinyl variants and collector’s edition CDs.

Swift's new album is already breaking a Spotify record

Spotify said on X that the “The Tortured Poets Department” became the most pre-saved album countdown page in the streaming service’s history.

Since its launch on March 28, TTPD's countdown page has ticked down to the album’s drop, now just hours away.

Was Swift's Grammys dress a 'Fortnight' Easter egg?

The white gown Swift wore to the 2024 Grammys, where she announced "The Tortured Poets Department," appears to have been an Easter egg.

Swift appears to be wearing a very similar dress in the teaser for the "Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)" music video, which will debut 8 p.m. ET tomorrow.

Swift was also pictured hugging Post Malone at the ceremony. Some fans online pointed out a similar shot of the two singers that appears in the teaser for the music video.

Swift drops 'Fortnight' music video teaser

Swift blessed fans with a teaser for “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)," the album's first single.

"At this hearing, I stand before my fellow members of The Tortured Poets Department with a summary of my findings. Album tonight. Fortnight music video tomorrow at 8pm et," Swift wrote in a post on X , which was accompanied by a short video clip.

The black-and-white teaser gave a sneak peak of the visuals for the music video. It's a combination of dramatic period gowns and a bleak medical setting in this supercut that is reminiscent of "Poor Things," which Swift's longtime friend Emma Stone recently won the best actress Oscar for.

Swift had announced she'd be dropping a music video at 8 p.m. ET tomorrow by sharing a “TTPD Timetable” on her Instagram page this week.

Merch is here — and already selling out

Hours before the album’s release, themed merchandise for “The Tortured Poets Department” is now available to order online.

The merch drop includes hoodies, crewnecks and gold jewelry branded with the album’s logo. A display case for the album vinyls seemingly sold out within minutes.

ICYMI: The Eras Tour concert film is on Disney+

In case you need something to do as you count down to the new album, “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is on Disney+. Swift announced the film would be available for streaming in February.

The film features all songs from the three Los Angeles tour dates during which it was filmed at SoFi Stadium. They include “cardigan,” as well as four additional acoustic surprise songs from the tour: “I Can See You,” “Maroon,” “You Are in Love” and “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”

Swifties online are freaking out over purported ‘leaks’

The internet was at it again this week, with some online circulating what they said were leaks of Swift's new album. It is unclear from where and when the apparent leaks originated, but one Reddit thread is already filled with commentary.

As early as Tuesday, "taylor swift leak" appeared to be blocked from searches on X. Instead, when a user tried to search the phrase, a blank page popped up with the message, "Something went wrong. Try reloading."

The secret message has been decoded

The sixth and final word of the secret message, “mortem,” was revealed today, hidden in the lyrics of the song “Begin Again.”

The complete secret message is: “We hereby conduct this post mortem.”

In a collaboration with Apple Music, Swift sorted some of her existing songs into thematic playlists , along with audio messages from her.

The messages seemed to confirm some fans’ theories that the playlists mirrored the five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — indicating that the new album may grapple with grief or loss. Swift later used a song from each playlist to reveal a hidden word on Apple Music every day leading up to the release of “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Swift sets fans loose on an international puzzle

Swifties had a big day yesterday after murals with QR codes were unveiled in cities around the world, including Mexico City, Paris and Chicago.

Fans stumbled upon the murals, which Swift had not announced, and scanned them to find a link to a YouTube Shorts video. Every mural had a unique code that led to a different video, each revealing a new letter as part of a word puzzle.

Fans came together online to help decode the puzzle, which seemed to hint at the new album's first track, because it spelled out "for a fortnight."

Swifties in Los Angeles flock to Spotify pop-up library

Many Los Angeles Swifties celebrated the new album with a pop-up library installation in partnership with Spotify.

The three-day event, which runs through today at The Grove, featured a sneak peek at some of the album's lyrics.

Fans posted videos of themselves lined up for hours to get a glimpse at the installation.

A manuscript was front and center at the installation, revealing new lyrics periodically as the pages were turned over the course of three days.

Many fans online tried to identify other potential Easter eggs in the pop-up library, such as a bust of a peace sign, quill and fountain pens and a globe that appeared to be pointing to Florida, the name of a track on the album.

Why is the album called 'The Tortured Poets Department'?

Fans were quick to note that “The Tortured Poets Department” is the longest title for a Taylor Swift album by a large margin, a distinction previously held by her third album, "Speak Now." Before "TTPD," "Speak Now" was her only album title consisting of more than one word.

Speculation surrounding the new album and its uncharacteristic title has primarily revolved around Swift’s  2023 breakup  with British actor Joe Alwyn after their six-year relationship.

After the album announcement, a  2022 Variety interview  between Alwyn and Paul Mescal resurfaced on X. The pair revealed in the interview that they were both members of a WhatsApp group chat titled the Tortured Man Club, prompting some fans to  draw parallels  between Alwyn and Swift’s upcoming album.

The true meaning of “The Tortured Poets Department” remains to be seen, but the album's rollout has featured references to famous poems like Charles Baudelaire’s “The Albatross,” among other literary references.

Clues keep coming

Speculation continues to grow over clues for lyrics, song titles and the album’s first music video.

Not much from Miss Swift so far

It's been a notably quiet rollout for "The Tortured Poets Department."

No themed Instagram grid overhaul, no lead singles, not even a cryptic calendar leading Swifties on wild goose chases for potential Easter eggs.

A week before the release, Taylor Swift was rocking out at Coachella instead of feeding her fans who are desperate for a hint of what's to come.

Aside from a hand-painted QR code on the side of a building in Chicago, a planned exhibit at The Grove in Los Angeles in partnership with Spotify and a quick video released Tuesday that appears to leave the "Midnights" era in the dust as viewers tour The Tortured Poets Department, Swift has been silent on what we can expect.

In the video , posted to her Instagram account, we did get a glimpse of a schedule that only showed release day, and on it, the promise of a music video on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. Fourteen tick marks beneath led some to think the music video could be for the 14th track on the album, or for the leading song, "Fortnight," since a fortnight is 14 days.

Swifties believing in the latter theory proved to be correct. Swift announced that the music video would be for "Fortnight" in a Thursday afternoon social media post.

Swifties online continue to grasp for any details to try to figure out what this mastermind might have in store for her beloved fan base.

What songs are on the new album?

Here's what songs are on the track list.

• "Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)"
• "The Tortured Poets Department"
• "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys"
• "So Long, London"
• "But Daddy I Love Him"
• "Fresh Out the Slammer"
• "Florida!!! (Florence + the Machine)"
• "Guilty as Sin?"
• "Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?"
• "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)"
• "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart"
• "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived"
• "The Alchemy"
• "Clara Bow"

Swift has also announced four bonus tracks: "The Manuscript," “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog.” Each bonus track will be available on a separate vinyl variant and won't be on the streaming version of the album.

When does 'The Tortured Poets Department' drop?

Swift's 11th studio album, "The Tortured Poets Department," will be released Friday at 12 a.m. ET, or 9 p.m. PT.

It will be available for purchase on vinyl, on cassette, as a digital album and in CD form. It will also be on several streaming services, including Spotify and Apple Music.

But if you plan to stream “The Tortured Poets Department” right after its release, be prepared for potential delays. When Swift’s most recent brand-new album, “Midnights,” was released, Spotify  briefly crashed  because of intense demand.

Angela Yang is a culture and trends reporter for NBC News.

Doha Madani is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News. Pronouns: she/her.

Rebecca Cohen is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.

is culture and trends editor for NBC News Digital.