Unpacking the Silence: Understanding Why Workers Hold Back

Over the years, I have become concerned with how the concept of psychological safety is used and abused across work sectors. In my view, the dominant narrative that ‘a submissive employee felt terrified to speak up because of an abusive boss’ is sometimes over-stretched. It masks us from understanding the deeper and systemic problems within the society. In this podcast, I have the honour to speak with Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School. Together we explore what makes it difficult for people in lower positions to speak up to their boss.

Based on a review of accidents, I have come to realize that when people don’t speak up, it could be that there is a problem of competence that undermines trust amongst team members. In such instances, lack of trust should not be mistaken with the absence of psychological safety.