The potential disaster of The Unspoken in your boardrooms

– and the three questions to help avoid it

The shadow of silence.

The constantly present but hidden member of the board.

Crucial information necessary for the success of your organization may remain unsaid because of the difficult emotions behind them. Emotions are carriers of signals from the surrounding system, both inside and outside ourselves, that something unsaid needs to be addressed! Here is how you access this possible game changing data.

Remember these three questions for your next board meeting. Or any executive meeting for that matter.

• What did you think and feel but didn’t say?

• What do you think others thought and felt but didn’t say?

• What do you think kept you from saying what you thought and felt?

I will now tell you why!

Executive boards have an indisputable task - a crucial leadership function in shaping an organization’s future.

Having earned the position at the top of the organizational hierarchy, the performance and outcome of this groups work is expected to be at the highest of standards. No decisions taken without careful consideration, based on rational and professional thinking process.

There is however a constant force shadowing the board and affecting the outcome – the unspoken.

Human cognition massively influences peoples communication and decision-making. Our cognition is largely shaped by our past experiences and this process takes place in a split second. On top of this we have the fact that humans can speak 140-300 words per minute but think 800-1400 words. Therefore, it is quite an amazing accomplishment to put words to what exactly is going on in our complex mind.

What also stops us from revealing what is truly going on in our minds is our Psychological Self protecting us from a potentially uncomfortable outcome. We avoid sharing anything related to difficult feelings such as shame, inadequacy or fear. Instead we stay silent. And the effect can be disastrous. When this happens we can literally feel the cognitive dissonance manifesting itself in our bodies.

This presents both a threat and a possibility.

Emotions are carriers of signals from the surrounding system, both inside and outside ourselves, that something unsaid needs to be addressed!

The self chosen silence, the shadow, is a performance reducing effect seldom tackled in boardrooms. The wanting to feel safe is creating and obeying an alternative reality, an illusion that all will be well and “I am safe if I stay silent”. This is the road to hell.

A board - engaged, well-prepared, and highly competent – will have a rewarding time using the three questions to collect new and crucial information from within, dragging the previously unsaid from the shadows and putting it to work for the greater good of the organization.