Cambridge Business Association
Speak-Up Culture
Book

Speak-Up Culture

When Leaders Truly Listen, People Step Up

Stephen Shedletzky
Page Two, 2023
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In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing airplanes crashed after takeoff, killing everyone on board both flights. Stephen Shedletzky explains how Boeing could have prevented those fatalities by developing a culture where employees felt safe speaking up about their concerns. Shedletzky outlines how to build such a culture by selecting and supporting the best leaders, and how to scale up by attracting and retaining the right people. Whether helping avoid tragedy or boosting productivity, Shedletzky shows how speak-up cultures and the leaders who nurture them make the world a better place.

Summary

In speak-up cultures, employees feel sharing ideas and concerns with leadership is safe and worthwhile.

Speak-up cultures are psychologically safe environments in which people feel sufficiently supported to take interpersonal risks, such as voicing concerns or admitting mistakes. In such an environment, when employees raise an issue or suggest an idea, management takes them seriously.

Speak-up cultures are good for business and society.

According to the Center for Talent Innovation, having a speak-up culture improves a company’s efficiency, trims costs, and boosts their likelihood of capturing new markets and more significant market share by 70% and 45%, respectively. This cross-cultural finding applies to speak-up cultures in Brazil, Hong Kong, Turkey, China, Russia, India, Japan, Singapore, South Africa, the UK, and the United States.

The cost of not fostering a speak-up culture is steep. In studies by Harvard Business School, professor Amy C. Edmondson found that staff at psychologically unsafe hospitals reported fewer errors yet made more errors than the staff of psychologically safe hospitals because ...

About the Author

Stephen Shedletzky is a thought leader, coach and adviser.

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