“A powerful book on an important topic. Speak Up helps us understand the subtle elements that contribute to our holding back valuable ideas and observations. Their TRUTH framework – which is as practical as it is rigorous – identifies essential elements to help individuals find their voice. “
Amy Edmondson, Professor, Harvard Business School, Author, The Fearless Organization (Wiley, 2019)
How your Power Silences Truth
Have you ever thought others should speak up more to you – with ideas, feedback or the truth about what’s going on? Megan Reitz explains how speaking truth to power is relational and getting others to speak up is as much about you as it is about them.
In this thought-provoking talk Megan, social psychologist and author of “Dialogue in Organizations”, “Mind Time”, and ‘Speak Up’ brings you face-to-face with your own power and warns you about three traps we all fall into that silence others.
Is it time to Speak Up?
What you say or don’t say in a conversation can have life-defining consequences on ourselves and those around us. Speak Up helps you to navigate power differences so you can speak up with confidence and enable others to find their voice in a way that will be heard.
Our day-to-day conversations define how we see ourselves and how we’re seen. The choices we make about what to say and who to say it to are decisive factors in whether we get promoted, or side-lined. Whether we steer clear of trouble, or find ourselves in it up to our necks. With daily scandals hitting the headlines and the continuous need to innovate to survive, creating a more honest, open, fulfilling and productive workplace has never been more pressing.
Our conversational choices harness the ideas and intelligence of the people we work with, or result in that revolutionary concept never seeing the light of day. They make us feel proud or ashamed of ourselves for what we have or have not said. They cause us to flourish and feel motivated, or result in us feeling dissatisfied and resentful.
Speak Up helps you to navigate power differences and speak up with confidence in a way that you will be heard. But it’s no good speaking up if there isn’t anyone listening so we also help you to understand how your power enables others to speak up and how it might silence them.
We found these topics most useful:
The problem with silence and the need to ‘speak up’
‘Speaking up’ and ‘listening up’ is not straightforward
Defining ‘truth’ and ‘power’
The original research report in March 2017 concludes with these comments:
‘… the capacity for relationally situated individuals to construct opportunities for voicing ideas and challenges can be regarded as vital to an organization’s ability to thrive and survive.
We have illustrated the limitations of approaches that ‘disappear’ power and truth dynamics, suggesting that the complexities of truth and power must be acknowledged, and mindful action and inquiry undertaken, if organizations are to develop a healthy capacity for ‘speaking truth to power’.
Never, we would argue, has this been more of a priority than it is today inside our organizations.’
Megan Reitz: a global voice for empowerment
We have identified five intertwined issues, which are all navigated together when speaking up and listening up. We call this the TRUTH framework and this is examined in detail in our book, Speak Up.
The first two,
‘Trust’ in the value of our own (or the other’s) opinion and
‘Risk’, the awareness of the consequences of speaking up (or being spoken up to), are put first as they decide, as one research participant noted: “Am I going to move or not move?”
The latter three,
‘Understanding’,
‘Titles’ and
‘How-to’ relate to the skill of understanding the political environment, assessing how the social titles and labels (such as gender, age, job title, race) affect speaking and listening up, and then having the capacity to judge how to say things, or invite things to be said in the moment.
The ways in which power silences and the ways in which we might help others to speak up is the topic of my recent TEDx talk. It is also the focus of five Harvard Business Review articles:
Managers you’re more intimidating than you think
Do you Have Advantage Blindness?
The Problem With Saying My Door Is Always Open
5 Questions To Ask Before You Call Out Someone More Powerful
Is Menopause Taboo in Your Organization?
You can view the webinar on sexual harassment, seen through the lens of our truth to power research here:
Truth to Power Videos:
1. Speaking Truth to Power - Why speaking up and listening up matters in the workplace https://vimeo.com/333060073/423c6dc283
2. Speaking Truth to Power - Why do we speak up or stay silent: Introducing the TRUTH framework https://vimeo.com/333060125/23caec1751
3. Speaking Truth to Power- How do we listen effectively to others https://vimeo.com/333060168/991411d4c7
4. Speaking Truth to Power - Speak Up and Listen Up: Trusting your and others’ opinions https://vimeo.com/333060225/57e9874e22
5. Speaking Truth to Power - Speak Up and Listen Up: Knowing the risks https://vimeo.com/333060271/287212a161
6. Speaking Truth to Power - Speak Up and Listen Up: Understanding power and politics https://vimeo.com/333060312/38d6acee41
7. Speaking Truth to Power - Speak Up and Listen Up: Why titles matter https://vimeo.com/333060351/71dfce1c81
8. Speaking Truth to Power - How to Speak Up and Listen Up https://vimeo.com/333060007/b35e703798
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