The people who know something don't say it
Start here
Lower the Cost of Speaking Up
Let people rehearse a hard point with AI in private, so more of the room speaks up.
Try this first
Before a hard discussion, tell people they are welcome to think it through with AI first and bring the sharpened point.
Borrowed from the Cybernetic Teammate field experiment at Procter & Gamble, by Fabrizio Dell'Acqua and colleagues (NBER Working Paper 33641). Read the original source.
Other moves for this problem (15 of 15)
Kind of change
- Dot votingFor when: Prioritization is being captured by the loudest or most senior voice.
- What Only You Know · A round for the facts only one person holdsFor when: A decision draws on people from different teams or roles, and the discussion keeps circling the same few facts.
- Threshing · Air every view and decide nothing yetFor when: A contentious matter is about to be decided and dissent hasn't surfaced.
- Challenge Twice, Then ActFor when: A junior can't get a safety or quality concern about an AI-influenced decision heard.
- "From suck to not-suck" / the ugly baby · Assume the first version is bad and improve itFor when: People hide drafts until polished and perfectionism is slowing iteration.
- Graded assertiveness (PACE: Probe, Alert, Challenge, Emergency) · Speak up in steps, from a question to a stopFor when: Speaking up is all-or-nothing, silence or a blow-up.
- Keep positional power out of the roomFor when: The senior's presence is chilling truth-telling in reviews.
- Principles before personalities; anonymity levels statusFor when: Ideas are being judged by who said them.
- The clerk · One person names where the group has landedFor when: Discussions are dominated by a few voices and no one synthesizes.
- The wrong order, followedFor when: People execute known-wrong instructions or outputs.
- Notes DayFor when: Systemic frustrations are accumulating with no channel to voice them.
- "Assume good faith" and "be bold."For when: Gatekeeping is slowing action and trust is low.
- say yes and deliver, or say no clearly · Commit clearly or decline clearlyFor when: Juniors defer to seniors and to the AI, and half-commitments abound.
- Yes, andFor when: Ideas get killed on arrival and brainstorms converge too fast.
- The Andon Cord · Anyone can stop the work when they see a problemFor when: Confident-wrong output can ship fast and quietly, and the cost of a silent error is high.