Combatting organizational silence: How to have an honest conversation

Combatting organizational silence: How to have an honest conversation Hewlett Packard’s Santa Rosa Systems Division was formed to take HP into a new and growing internet market. Yet, two years later, growth and profits were so disappointing that the senior team thought they were six months from being replaced. What saved them? An honest conversation about what was going wrong and overcoming organizational silence. Everyone in SRSD knew what the problems were, but no one could find a way to talk openly about it. Research – our own and others’ – finds that 80% of business, nonprofit, educational, governmental, and nongovernmental institutions fail to confront the truth about the flaws in their system of organizing, managing, and leading that keep them from carrying out their strategies. This phenomenon is called organizational silence. It undermines employee engagement, trust, and commitment and thus prevents senior management from learning about what is working and not working. Organizations beset with organizational silence are stuck in neutral, generally unable to learn what is holding them back and unable to change even what they do know about.