“It is a significant risk, for the project, for the Department, and for the Minister” my coaching counterpart, a mid level executive and subject matter expert, informed me.

”Yet, [the Senior Executive responsible] just won’t listen. They keep saying, that this is what the Minister wants, and so this is what the Minister will get, and we have to make the Minister happy…but I’ve been here before. And seen it ‘blow up’. And all the signs are showing that this is happening again.’

“In the calm of the day”
9 Feb 2024

Looking up at Australia’s flag, hanging high above New Parliament House, from within one of the many courtyards

If you’ve been in the public service, the above description from one of my coaching counterparts, would not surprise you. Leaders, regardless of the context in which they work:

forget about the positional power imbalance that they have over their employees and how their ‘advantage blindness’ can prevent them from noticing, let alone listening to, dissenting voices;
rarely question their ‘trusted confidant’ list, thus enabling their unconscious biases to force them into reactive decisions, rather than responsive ones, and
frequently, in the heat of a pressurised environment, signal (in all sorts of ways) a message of ‘shut up’ rather than ‘speak up’.

These three findings are not unique to the public/civil service. In fact, in a 2020 paper in the BMJ Leader (an international, peer-reviewed, journal focusing on leadership in health and care), Professor Megan Reitz, and John Higgins explore these in a very compelling way, and show how these unconscious habits can manifest across the health sectors too.

Hierarchical systems, they astutely observe, target their activities to address risk at the capability of the, often junior, employees. The system’s work in this space highlight how a junior employee ‘should’ speak up when they see risk, and puts in place ways for them to do so. Yet, as Reitz and Higgins suggest, while this focus of ‘attention and efforts predominantly on those who feel silenced…is undoubtedly an important initiative, we need to tackle the cultural context that means that such bravery and courage is required in the first place’. (2020:270)

To do so requires leaders who have wisdom. It requires leaders who are not afraid to hear dissenting views. And, it requires leaders who are willing to change their minds based upon the facts presented to them.

And, as Reitz and Higgins clearly state, it also requires leaders who are willing to look at their unconscious biases - especially if they think, ‘luckily, I’m quite good at that and everyone thinks I’m approachable…’ (2020:272)

Their research shows that junior employees (even in the sometimes life and death situations of the health system) feel that if they were to raise the problems that they see, their voice would either be ignored or suppressed at least 86% of the time.

Reitz, M, Higgins, J, 2020, Speaking truth to power: Why leaders cannot hear what they need to hear, BMJ Leaders

If the employee was a more senior employee, it only marginally improves. Reitz and Higgins’ research showed that more senior employees felt they would be either ignored or have their voice suppressed if they voiced a problem 73% of the time.

So what can you do, if you want to be a leader that receives the information on risk that you need to make good decisions?

1. Read the Reitz and Higgins paper (here); and

2. Come up with ways to hear as many voices as possible, through a variety of channels; and

3. Draw your awareness to whose ‘voice’ you value, and interrogate your decision on this. Why are these the only voices you value? How do you value the more junior voices? Do not shy away from bias, but identify it with discernment (not judgement); and

4. Draw your awareness to how you present when you hear uncomfortable news, so as to discover how you could be signalling others to ‘shut up’; and, finally

5. If you are a Minister, (or Minister’s Advisor), similar to the coaching counterpart story at the front of this blog, bring your awareness to the fact that many Senior Public Servants will take your every whim as meaning that you ‘must have’ something. Make it clear, to yourself, and to them, what is a ‘must have’ and what is merely an ‘idea’… and make it clear that you want to know the risks.

This will not only produce better policy, programs, and regulations for those you serve, but will also endear you to the more junior subject matter experts who may feel that their insights are unnecessarily being silenced by risk averse seniors.

If you resonated with this blog, please ‘like’, comment and subscribe. With the hope that it helps you on your Path to Insight,

Sincerely,

James

How to hear what you need to hear

Leading through a lens of learning…

Fountains of life