A while back, I had lunch with a business acquaintance who, for years, was the protégé of a business legend. He told me that one day, when the business legend was bemoaning a frustrating interaction with a board member, he simply looked at my friend and said, "Always remember, no one knows anything."
I found this statement provocative, not necessarily because I believed it but because I thought it might serve as an inspiration for those who sometimes feel anxious about speaking up, sharing a point of view, or offering a perspective. (No matter how senior or self-actualized we are, we’ve all found ourselves in that situation from time to time.). Many of us are conditioned to think that those in authority inherently know better or that “group think” is the key to reaching the most valuable conclusions. Or we might be fearful of the consequences of speaking our minds and convince ourselves that it’s too risky to do so. As a result, too many of us fail to express ourselves in situations where our unique perspective might really count.
Why couldn’t believing, if only for a few moments, that no one knows anything free us from the belief that someone in the room knows better than we do and give us the confidence boost we need to be able to speak our mind?
Of course, it would be preferable if companies and leaders fostered environments in which we were supported in our efforts to offer alternative perspectives or to question the status quo. But more often than not, this type of behavior is discouraged.
The problem with all of this is that by failing to allow different perspectives to be openly shared and discussed, no one benefits. There are no winners, neither the organization nor the individual. In a world where innovation is critical to success, where inventive and out-of-the-box solutions are required, failure to speak up or to encourage idea-sharing creates a situation rife with missed opportunities.
Consider, too, that “inclusion” is one of the hottest topics in boardrooms across America today. One of the hallmarks for achieving an inclusive work culture is the encouragement of diverse thinking and open, reasoned dialogue that welcomes different points of view. Without that, all the statistical diversity that companies seek to achieve in their hiring (whether it be based on gender, race, ethnicity, or something else) is largely meaningless, and their retention of whatever diverse workforce they are able to recruit is severely jeopardized by the realities of a less-than-open workplace.
In her book The Fearless Organization, Professor Amy Edmondson of the Harvard Business School speaks of organizations that develop a culture of “psychological safety: the experience of feeling able to speak up with relevant ideas, questions, or concerns”. As she puts it, “Psychological safety is present when colleagues trust and respect each other and feel able- even obligated - to be candid."
Professor Edmondson’s work suggests that psychological safety is far from commonplace in modern organizations. She cites, as an example, a study that found that 85% of respondents weren’t able to raise what they considered to be important issues with their bosses.
In the span of my own career, I’ve learned that great leadership requires diligence in helping people express themselves. The quietest person in the room can, very often, be the one with the most valuable ideas. So, what tools can a leader use to help employees be more forthcoming with their ideas?
Ask Questions
I’ve learned that simply asking questions is an excellent place to start. These questions can range from the simple to the complex. Here are some I’ve found useful.
At a regular Monday morning meeting, go around the room and simply ask, “What’s one thing about your weekend you’d like to share? Something fun? Something funny? Something interesting?” That kind of question can reveal a great deal about who people are outside of the office, help us to understand them better as humans, and make them feel more comfortable about speaking up on all kinds of topics.
At monthly meetings, make it a habit to ask people to “share one thing that we did this month that you think we might have done better." Encourage everyone to answer, beginning with the person who tends to be the quietest in the room.
In a meeting where a plan is being finalized, ask everyone, before executing it, to predict a future scenario in which it fails. Ask “what did we miss or overlook in the planning process that resulted in failure? What were you skeptical of or uncomfortable with as we devised the plan?” This allows for a thorough and open examination of a plan before it’s put into operation. Again, start with the quietest person in the room.
Reward “Speaking Your Mind”
Leaders must also encourage those who challenge convention by rewarding them. Here are some thoughts based on techniques I’ve used.
Probably one of the most effective, simple and immediate ways to reward someone is to display gratitude publicly when that person shares a point of view openly. When this happens in the moment, it can be pretty powerful. It sends a signal to everyone in the room that this kind of behavior is encouraged.
Keeping a record of open and honest idea-sharing should be a key part of any performance review. Make a file for each direct report so that you can include specifics in their reviews. This will help you to establish a positive link between your assessment of their performance and their tendency to speak out and their willingness to challenge existing ideas. (I recall that as a student at Harvard Business School, fully 50% of my grade was for class participation.)
Promotions and raises can also be used effectively as rewards and bona fide recognition.
Create Task Forces
While task forces aren’t a novel idea, they can be an effective means of encouraging idea-sharing and open dialogue, which can lead to significant innovation and change. I’ve found that the trick with task forces is to maintain their momentum and ensure that any implementation of their output is championed and realized.
The task force process begins with brainstorming. Select an appropriate group of employees and set them to identifying issues and problems with existing processes and procedures. The brainstorming session must, of course, be crafted to elicit candid comments, perhaps using some of the tactics already described.
A key follow-up to the brainstorming exercise is the identification of task force members, from the original group and beyond, charged with exploring the issues identified and creating an action plan for solutions. Successful task forces require leadership support outside of the task force itself to track progress and to secure the management buy-in and financial support necessary to bring their solutions to fruition. Most importantly, a task force’s efforts must never be allowed to die on the vine.
Leadership that gives people an incentive to speak their minds provides an opportunity to learn from alternative perspectives and to improve business performance. As an example, having studied 50 teams in a major manufacturing company, Professor Edmondson concluded that the “data showed that teams with psychological safety also had higher performance.” She also asserted that “a multi-year study of teams at Google found that psychological safety was the critical factor explaining why some teams outperformed others."
While it would be ideal if leaders and corporations routinely used practices that help people to open up, they don’t. In the absence of that, the business legend’s advice is pretty apt, placing the responsibility to speak up on the individual who has something meaningful to say.
For those afraid to express disagreement or challenge conventional wisdom, keeping in mind that no one knows anything might be liberating. Just think of the emotional license it could provide the next time you’re in a meeting thinking “that doesn’t seem quite right to me” or “I think there might be another way to think about that." It could give you the freedom to raise your hand and make your point loud and clear.
We all deserve to be heard.
If the legend is right and no one knows anything, you, yes you, could prove to be the one exception to that.
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