Random Thoughts on Silence of the Teams

If you google "quotes on silence", you will see thousands. My?favourite is from Martin Luther King, Jr?"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends".?

Silence has many meanings in life. Your ability to make sense of them will make a difference in the quality of your life. Similarly, in a corporate world, a leader needs to be mindful of various types of silence from his team, which will give him many insights about himself and his team.?

Generally, one might encounter the following types of silence in offices.

Silence of innocence: This usually happens in the first meeting with fresh joiners from campus. They are transitioning from the boisterous & carefree college life to the new world of responsibilities & action. As you introduce them to the organisation, your team, area of work etc., they are silently forming their first impressions of the new world.?

Silence of surprise: One encounters this type of silence when a new idea or scheme or a policy or anything out of the current order (and the team has no prior knowledge) is introduced, and the team is trying to make out what it is all about. (While this silence is a prelude to the tsunami of questions you will face in the next meeting seeking clarifications).??

Silence of remorse: This is when something has gone wrong, and the team was found lacking on all fronts. Usually, the debriefing meetings in such cases only echo the sound of the leader and others in reflective silence.?

Silence of reverence:?This type is encountered when there is a significant gap in seniority or rank between the speaker and the audience.?

Silence of indifference:?This is when the team feels a gulf between the words and deeds of the speaker. There could be a chasm between what is talked about safety, people practices, cost optimisation etc. and what is being practised on the ground. The team feels it is futile to engage with the speaker. The silence at the end of a Townhall indicates that the organisation is not maintaining a healthy culture.

A good leader can easily manage silences of innocence, surprise, remorse and reverence by engaging with the team, with upfront clarifications like trying to answer a few possible questions that must be lurking in people's minds, dipping into personal experiences and so on.?

However, if you encounter silence of indifference, your antenna should immediately go up - it indicates a breakdown of trust. Unless you don't act on the root cause for this, you won't be able to take organisational vision to reality, and it is bound to fail in time.

There is a worst-case scenario. Instead of addressing the root cause of silence of indifference, some people are prepped to ask questions by the core team (or your friends) to avoid awkward silence. I can only say 'woe to you' because (1) they are aware of the lack of trust between the larger team and the leadership, and (2) instead of telling you the reality, they are purposely doing a disservice by faking an engagement. They are, in other words, leading you up a blind alley. However, the solution for this is reasonably straightforward - (a) transparencey, (b) walking the talk, and (c) being grounded.?