Dangerous Silence & Safety Culture
We all crave silence, from all sources, and sounds, including our own voice. Silence calms the mind, soothes the soul, and allows for mental regeneration. The cacophony of life is at best stimulating and at worst, distracting and annoying.
Silence can also equate to risk in teams and organizations. Silence in the workplace can be an indicator of pervasive behaviors based on fear. The fear of speaking up when teams know something that may be critical and potentially dangerous can prevent open communication. Dangerous silence constitutes the highest risk when it exists within the safety culture in organizations. There are unfortunate examples of employees choosing not to speak up even when it results in their death and that of others. One widely known example involves two Boeing 747s colliding on a fog-shrouded runway at Tenerife in the Canary Islands, killing 583 people in March 1977. Two flights were preparing for takeoff during the foggy conditions. Flight officer Klass Meurs and flight engineer Willem Schreuder were waiting for clearance from air traffic control when Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten irritatingly declared "we're going". Rather than challenge the captain to wait for confirmation of takeoff clearance, Officers Meurs and Schreuder chose not to speak up. The devastating results resound in this and other similar crashes where causation factors include employees experiencing fear of speaking up.
Why do we still hear of workplace injuries, fatalities in organizations with sophisticated health and safety systems? Consider if this factor is impacting the safety culture in your organization. Leadership feels confident that employees are comfortable speaking up because that behavior is encouraged. Leaders expect their teams to communicate freely and actively as necessary. Teams understand this expectation however do not always feel safe to engage in the behavior even when it poses risk to themselves and others. Simply telling employees that they are safe to speak up is not adequate to fostering open communication in the team. Leaders often tell me they are confident their employees are speaking up because they give them space, time, and support to do so. They tell me there is no reason to believe dangerous silence exists in their team. The problem is that dangerous silence is insidious, and a pattern of behavior informally endorsed by members of the team. Employees are managing the perceptions others have of themselves and do not want to look incompetent, wrong, or causing trouble. Leadership may be an unaware that dangerous silence permeates their team and has difficulty understanding the origin of this problem when it is identified. How can leadership identify if dangerous silence exists in their team? And how can leaders be an active member of the team to learn where behavioral changes are necessary in support of high performing teams?
Fearless Organizations used 30 years of research to develop a scan to identify how team members perceive the level of psychological safety within their work context. The scan is based on 4 domains to assess the presence of psychological safety necessary for employees to speak up and authentically participate in the team.
The 4 domains of the scan include:
- Willing to help
- Open conversation
- Inclusion and diversity
- Attitude to risk and failure
Administering the psychological safety index scan offers an organic process to empower the team. Team facilitation presents the anonymous scan metrics focused on serving the team with humble inquiry, respect, and an invitation to participate in safe, shared dialogue. Creating the social construct in the debrief session sets the stage for moving forward. The team must feel safe enough to discuss their reactions, thoughts, ideas, and concerns in the space. Each member of the team is supported in their authentic participation to the extent they feel safe to do so, therefore, silence in the context of team member participation in the debrief setting is acceptable. Meeting each member where they are rather then expecting them to be where leadership wants them to be is the basis of respect for the process.
Acknowledgement that the team knows themselves best is imperative to achieve open conversation and sustainable growth. Teams need safe space to engage in organic dialogue to gain awareness of the opportunities for growth, innovation, and behavioral change. Each member of the team choses their individual commitment to participate in change inclusive of the team leader. High performing teams thrive on members bringing their authentic contributions to share their ideas, opinions, and speak freely about concerns. Leadership can enable teams to breech the insidious politeness, fear, and self-protection behaviors to embrace collaborative, authentic patterns of working together. Stand back and consider whether the safety culture in your team or organization is being impacted by the presence of dangerous silence and commit to setting the conditions for psychological safety to unlock the barrier. The results may astound you and positively influence the safety culture and outcomes.
How are you serving your team today?
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