WHY CHOOSE SILENCE

Why do you choose silence? When do you choose silence?  What might make you to change the way how to choose between silence and voice in different organizational settings?

The general view today seems to be that it would be most valuable for the very success of the organization if as many as possible would provide their genuine own views, ideas and observations for the general discussion. Let us take this as a starting point and let us ask why so many in so many situations still seem to choose silence?  I dare to propose that my question is not a senseless provocation - this is because so many discussions with so many people in so many occasions have convinced me that quite often people actually have chosen silence and surely people will choose silence in many situations in the future. Perhaps what we may have here is an intriguing oxymoron. You learn to know about silence when people tell about it (of course this happens in different situation than where the silence takes place). But surely you know this phenomenon and you must have also observed it in many occasions and you must have heard about it. Could the silence be the hot but quiet topic on the arena of management, control and leadership?

 

 

 

As such it would be a most interesting topic for in depth inquiry to examine how and why silence is selected in different organizations, in different business cultures, in different meetings, in different places and with different people.

Why people choose silence?  Let me start by outlining a list of obvious reasons. This is by no means an exhaustive list, it is mainly food for thought kind of list which could give each of us an idea how common phenomenon silence must actually be in any organizational reality. The list also shows immediately that people may certainly feel that they have many good reasons which may result in silence in different settings. So, why silence, what people may think when they choose silence:

1.       No reason to talk, nobody would really listen anyway

2.       Talk is idle, it has been tried, it will not change anything

3.       My ideas are not that important

4.       There might be negative consequences if I opened my mouth

5.       Talking (proposing new ideas) is work, and I have done my share

6.       I am not in a such position who speaks is situation like this

7.       We have two ears and one mouth, listening is gold and speaking something else

8.       …

Certainly the list could go on and on, and everybody could easily list numerous reasons why people may choose not to express their opinions in different settings. What is important here is to realize that silence is certainly an unavoidable part of organizational life. Different people in different settings choose silence. Also it is important to realize that mostly people choose silence because they think that it is wise thing to do. Probably silence is selected for personal reasons but also for organizational reasons. People may think that raising up certain topics might cause havoc in their organizations and therefore silence will actually benefit the organization.

 

In fact, it may not be so obvious that silence should be replaced with voice everywhere and always. These issues are truly very delicate and complex. I think that generally speaking people and organizations are doing today what they are capable of and what they consider possible. Hence in real world it is often impossible to make a quick and heroic move which would change black into white, or ineffectiveness into effectiveness, or silence into voice - and create only positive consequences.

The level of silence in any organization, and in any meeting, and actually anywhere where people encounter has been chosen by those wise people who are actors in that particular situation. At the same time most organizations would undoubtedly benefit a lot, if not enormously, if people would more openly share their observations and ideas. This is the setting where leadership in real world has to operate. How to decrease the level of silence in organizations so that consequences are desired for people and for the organization?