[I]magine you’ve got a problem that feels too risky or futile for anyone on your team to speak up about individually. Perhaps it’s about a business policy or process that your boss is wedded to or can’t change himself anyway, or perhaps it’s a problem with your manager’s own behavior or performance. This is often where silence prevails. We found in our interviews, though, that sometimes people did well when they banded together to speak up collectively. In some cases, it involved talking as a group to their direct boss (for instance, at a weekly meeting) or finding an opportunity to approach a skip-level boss together; in others, it involved scheduling a series of one-on-one meetings (because it was hard to get everyone free at the same time) and being sure to use “we” language in those meetings.
We heard about “collective voice” episodes in about one-third of our interviews and, to our initial surprise, learned that the participants considered the outcomes positive in every case. Upon reflection, we understand that this success stemmed from their ability to both reduce the risks and increase their efficacy in speaking up. People noted explicitly that there is “strength in numbers” and that it “felt a lot safer to approach the manager together.” And they pointed out that they were less likely to “be written off as one disgruntled person” once the boss saw they were raising a systemic issue. They recognized the potency of solidarity and benefited from what scholars call “social proof,” the influence that comes from seeing others committed to a course of action. Collective voice was also more likely than individual voice to lead to action because the necessary coordination and buy-in needed from colleagues to solve certain problems had already been obtained by the time the boss was approached.
"When It’s Tough to Speak Up, Get Help from Your Coworkers" Harvard Business Review. 3/4/2016
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