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Executives who raise concerns in meetings get labeled pessimistic and then stop talking. Politeness doesn't mean psychological safety. Watch what happens after someone disagrees, not just how people speak to each other.
Executives who raise concerns in meetings get labeled pessimistic and then stop talking. Politeness doesn't mean psychological safety. Watch what happens after someone disagrees, not just how people speak to each other.
Here's how to spot fake psychological safety on your team. Take a few meeting transcripts and look at what happens after somebody disagrees. I was working with an executive team that looked healthy on the surface. But when we used AI to analyze 3 meeting transcripts, something jumped out. 2 executives would raise concerns. Then somebody would respond, you're being too pessimistic. That's not really a major issue. Let's focus on the positives. And after that, those 2 executives barely spoke for the rest of the meeting. Nobody yelled. Nobody insulted them. Everyone probably thought the meeting was perfectly respectful. But the team had taught them disagreement gets shut down. So don't measure psychological safety by whether people are polite. Look at what happens after someone challenges the group. If that person suddenly stops talking, your psychological safety may be a lot faker than you think.
