Why This Matters Following Last Week’s Post
Following on from last week’s post, particularly the second scenario, I want to emphasize an option that wasn’t discussed. To refresh, the situation is that someone is going to raise a concern in a problematic manner. The person should find a better way to raise the concern. But sometimes they’re determined to go that path, or they don’t know any other path. If someone else discovers that this is going to happen, they should influence use of another path to get the concern known. That’s where I left it, unfortunately.
The Most Important Thing: The Concern Must Get Airtime
What I failed to mention in that post is the most important thing: the concern must get air time. Don’t suppress the concern. Whether you’re the person with the concern. Or you’re someone who has discovered that it exists. Or you’re the leader to whom the concern is brought, regardless of whether it has come to you inappropriately or inconveniently.
What happens when concerns are squashed?
First, the person (or group) with the concern feels marginalized. They have effectively been asked to disengage, to maybe go do something else or work somewhere else. That’s terrible.
Second, there’s now a danger that this concern is a real problem that no one is acknowledging or working on. It is what is called a ‘risk’ in management-speak, and it would be the worst kind of risk, a hidden risk. That’s also terrible.
Don’t suppress legitimate concerns.
Organizational Silence and the Cost of Not Speaking Up
NASA drives this point home at least annually as it remembers the astronaut lives lost through the years. They have mandatory training to bolster employees against the fallacy known as organizational silence, which is when individuals don’t feel safe to raise concerns, or organizational practices or culture lead people to stay quiet. If you’ve followed the news about the upcoming Artemis II flight around the moon with astronauts on board, perhaps you’ve noticed the struggle to hear and assess concerns is ongoing (it never ends). I hope for successful resolution, especially for the astronauts. More broadly, it takes consistent effort to monitor and reduce silencing in all organizations and in many conversations. This is an essential component of effective engineering communications and effective engineering leadership.
Legitimate Concerns Versus Whining
Drawing the line between a legitimate concern and whining isn’t easy, but that too is part of the leadership skillset I help people develop. In this context, I think there are two categories of whining. One is vagueness, an idea that something bad might happen without enough detail or data to evaluate, and despite being given opportunity to support the idea, failing to produce the evidence. The other I’ll call ownership – the concern has been aired and vetted, but the person or entity that raised it doesn’t want to give up, sometimes because they don’t want to be seen as having been wrong. Both are real challenges. Both require care. Neither should be silenced.
Leadership Requires Courage
It takes leadership to raise a concern. It takes leadership to properly address a concern. Both take courage. Want help with your courage? Or with timing, delivery, and choosing a venue? I’m here for you.