10 steps to build a healthy speaking up culture
Sound like a challenge? Good. It is - but I have heard that anything worth doing usually is!
It requires a bold commitment and a willingness to see it through, even when it gets tough. However, the rewards are significant, the impact powerful, for your employee, the team, and the whole organisation.
The alternative, let’s face it, is not great. The cost of silence is huge and a worthy approach if you are not keen on learning, innovating, and growing. If you want to lose good people, stifle creativity and ideas and ensure you have access to limited solutions for complex problems then creating and maintaining a climate of fear, of 'keep your head down', and suppressing the diversity of voices in your organisation is the way to go. After all, who wants to thrive in a VUCA world anyway?
On the other hand, if you want people to feel safe enough to share knowledge and ideas, to disagree agreeably, to say what needs to be said when it needs to be said, to speak up for improvement, to respond to change more effectively and with greater resilience, to engage and adapt and for people to thrive, achieve and be well along the way, then creating and sustaining a speaking up (and listening up) culture is probably your best bet.
Here is a quick overview of a ten-step approach to helping your organisation develop a stronger ‘speaking up’ culture.
Access the research and writing in this area. Reitz & Higgins in their wonderful book ‘Speak Up’ describe in very practical ways the “plan of campaign for how to create a better speak-up, listen up culture”. This is in my opinion essential reading and places emphasis on the need to listen up, as well as to speak up.
Start by being open with your workforce around the need to evolve to more of a speaking up culture. Some humility may be required. This may be the starting point in developing trust. Your workforce will already know what and where the problems are and will likely be longing for change. They can help co-create the journey and destination.
Ask your workforce regularly whether they feel safe to speak up without fear of negative repercussion, whether that be through staff surveys or anonymised ‘speaking up’ software platforms – there are a multitude of ways to make that happen and to protect anonymity where that is required. It is important for leadership to not assume that they know how the workforce perceive the culture. I suppose it is about being brave enough to ask and having the will to take the necessary action in response to what you hear.
Leaders will need support to be able to respond to and role model an environment increasingly characterised by speaking up. Consider the need for coaching and additional support for leaders to develop/maintain psychological resilience, self-awareness, and an understanding of the impact they and their behaviours have on others.
Ensure strong governance is in place to ensure progress and transparency is maintained. The Board and senior leadership need to be fully bought in and role modelling reinforcing behaviours. This is vital.
Consider and make clear the link between speaking up, organisational values and the business objectives. These are not separate – they are mutually inclusive, and a cohesive story needs to be told, emphasising this interdependency.
Invest in awareness raising across the organisation as well as development of knowledge and skills, particularly across the leadership. Ensure your people develop an understanding of the importance of psychological safety & the behaviours/processes that undermine & support it. Everyone (not just leadership) is responsible for building the speaking up culture they wish to see and experience.
Ensure you have an effective recognition process so that the whole organisation can see that “speaking up and listening up are formally and informally appreciated and recognised”, (Reitz & Higgins)
Look to other organisations to see what they have done. The NHS has for some years now introduced and embedded the role of Freedom to Speak Up Guardians and there is much that can be learnt from their approach and the significant positive impact this has made on patient safety and the experience overall of the workforce.
Embed speaking up into the organisation's business/people processes to ensure they reinforce and not inadvertently undermine the intended approach and outcomes
This is just a summary that hopefully stimulates some thinking in this area. If you wish to discuss it further or could do with some help considering your next steps, then do get in touch. steve@thecompassionateleadership.company
(Article informed by a previous longer blog I published in March 2020)