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How can we ensure that every opinion in our organization counts and that we collaborate and exchange ideas? In this video, we talk about fostering psychological safety to overcome organizational silence and enhance performance.

First, let’s look at our learning objectives. We want to understand why employees fail to raise issues in their workplace. We also want to learn about the causes and effects of organizational silence on employee behavior and organizational performance. Lastly, we aim to identify strategies to create a psychologically safe environment where employees feel comfortable speaking up.

Why do employees fail to raise issues at work? Let’s consider a real case that took place in England about a decade ago, known as the Mid Staffordshire scandal. The Mid Staffordshire hospital trust, managing Stafford Hospital, faced a major crisis. In 2007, a patient named Bella Bailey died, and her daughter, Julie Bailey, protested against what she perceived as insufficient care practices. This triggered government inquiries from 2005 to 2009, revealing up to 1,200 unnecessary deaths. As a result, the trust’s reputation suffered, and in 2014, the organization was dissolved.

The Francis Report, the final government inquiry, highlighted a culture of fear and secrecy. Staff did not feel able to report concerns, and there was bullying, shutting out feedback, and mistrust. This environment discouraged people from speaking up, even when they witnessed poor care.

This leads us to the concept of organizational silence. Organizational silence is defined as a collective climate in which employees believe speaking up about problems is futile or dangerous. Instead of voicing concerns, silence becomes the dominant response.

Key assumptions behind organizational silence include managers’ fear of negative feedback and their implicit beliefs about employees. Managers may fear showing weakness or having their decisions questioned, leading them to discourage negative feedback. They might also assume employees are self-interested, that management knows best, or that unity at all costs is a sign of health—thus viewing disagreement as negative.

The effects of organizational silence are significant. At the organizational level, it can lead to less effective decision-making, poor error detection and correction, and ultimately, less effective change processes. At the employee level, it results in low working comfort, low commitment and trust, and increased stress, turnover, and even sabotage.

How can we break this cycle? We need to create psychological safety. Psychological safety is a shared belief among team members that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. Differentiating from trust, psychological safety is a broader concept about feeling safe to speak up within the group.

However, psychological safety alone is not enough. Without clear, demanding goals, a team might end up in a comfort zone where everyone is friendly but not performing. Without psychological safety, a highly demanding environment might be stressful. We need both psychological safety and challenging goals to achieve high performance.

How do leaders establish psychological safety? It involves three steps:

Setting the stage: Leaders must clarify expectations about failure, uncertainty, and interdependence, and emphasize the purpose of the work. They must explain what is acceptable and what is not, and why speaking up is needed.

Inviting participation: Leaders should acknowledge they don’t know everything and encourage employees to share ideas. They must practice inquiry, be good listeners, and set up structures and guidelines for participation—like regular team meetings where opinions are welcome.

Responding productively: Leaders must listen carefully when employees speak up, thank them for their input, and destigmatize failure. They must differentiate between different types of failures:

Preventable failures (known processes): Require process improvements and sometimes sanctions if repeated despite training.

Complex failures (system breakdowns): Require analyzing the system, not blaming individuals.

Intelligent failures (innovation-related): Are opportunities to learn, not to punish.

In summary, organizational silence often arises from managers’ fear of negative feedback and implicit beliefs. Overcoming it requires psychological safety, which involves setting expectations, encouraging voice, and responding productively. By doing so, employees feel comfortable raising issues, leading to better performance, more effective change, and a healthier, more engaged organizational environment.

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