Even for Leaders seeking to be democratic with Employee Voice and Communication, there is a gap between being intentional and aspiring for Employee Voice and actually manifesting it.

Power-centric workplace cultures coupled with early experiences and conditioning, can easily make it difficult for many to trust the bait to Speak-up! In our work at Capstone People Consulting we find Leaders submitting the response to an open-ended question inviting ideas/ suggestions/ agreement is often Silence from teams.

At best there are the usual one or two who speak up, often without necessarily investing in meaningful dialogue. The Leader moves on in the spirit of expediency, having got some responses..

Building Psychological Safety for Employee Voice is easily one of the biggest opportunities in our times, it can complete our thinking through collective intelligence, and create a rhythm for Creative Problem-solving and Innovation.

The next time you get Silence in response to a question try these hacks-

– Set ground-rules on How you want to work together and call out team participation and Speaking up as important expectations-Define Contribution and Voice as Performance

– Ask open ended questions to create divergence, ask for suggestions, goad people to contribute..

– demonstrate the art of building on each others’s perspectives to find Co-created solutions

– use those solutions as part of execution to show you ‘Really’ value team inputs- honour the contributors by acknowledging their ideas as you carry them through..

– demonstrate Candour and Psychological safety by upholding transparency, explaining organization’s decions and having honest dialogues around WIP themes that still need work..

– for the ones who still don’t Speak up- invest in one on ones to build Trust. Share stories. Self revealation can build deep bonds…Build Trust and onboard them back in the teams

-in team meetings bring in those who are underconfident, shy or struggle with fear of Speaking up.

-show them how Speaking up and disagreeing Does Not have career consequences..

Bringing in tacit creativity to play is the job of Every Leader in the 21st Century…
Understanding silence beyond words to bring back, reconnect and enable each one’s brilliance to shine, can be richly rewarding for any Leader seeking to manifest sustainable excellence and distinctive #employeeexperience

Like Adam Grant says..
The goal is not to be comfortable. It’s to create a climate where people can speak up without fear. Psychological safety begins with admitting our own mistakes and welcoming criticism from others.” – Adam Grant