"During an annual condominium meeting, at the end, the leader asked if anyone had any suggestions or questions. I spoke up: "How about we convert a portion of our common storage into a small gym?" My idea was met with uncomfortable silence, and eventually the leader responded hesitantly: "I honestly don't know how to address that," before promptly closing the meeting."
"History is filled with organizations that silenced ideas before the market did: Kodak dismissing digital photography, Nokia resisting smartphones, Volkswagen's culture muting concerns about CO₂ emissions. Every innovation process, from idea generation to prototyping and implementation, depends on people talking to each other, challenging assumptions, and learning together."
An individual's viable idea can be dismissed when meeting environments are closed, causing self-doubt and missed opportunities. Silence in meetings often reflects systemic norms rather than personal failure. Organizations that silenced internal concerns—Kodak, Nokia, Volkswagen—failed due to lack of psychological safety, not lack of intelligence or resources. Innovation requires people to talk, challenge assumptions, and learn together across stages from idea generation to implementation. Low psychological safety causes withholding, silence, and risk-avoidant behavior; high psychological safety promotes questioning, debate, experimentation, and collaboration. High-autonomy, high-uncertainty contexts make psychological safety particularly critical.
Read at Fast Company
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