It takes a long time to create the landscape for a scandal. In this blog we examine some of the common factors that show themselves in scandals such as that of the Post Office Horizon and the Lucy Letby Imperial College Healthcare Trust whistleblowing issues. We will explore, why those involved can easily become complicit in a situation that becomes not just headline grabbing but responsible for life changing events.

Work dominates our lives and the journey of our career is likely to be hard earned and certainly something we protect at all costs. But what if that blinds us? What if we become so protective of our knowledge we feel we're experts and deny that others may know more or have knowledge that can contribute to our own growth? You may be aware of someone who won't listen to your input, and disregards anything they perceive to be unfitting of the situation. You may have been in a meeting where the only people to be heard are those who are more outgoing. What if it's those who are dictating the way we do things in our workplace? What if listening to those is where we may be at risk of groupthink?

At Fresh Seed we offer whistleblowing training and a common theme in conversations around the need is the ability to self advocate. Self advocacy though, is only possible when you feel safe to speak up. Let's dive deeper into speak up culture and explore what that has to do with the scandals hitting the headlines and whistleblowing.

Firstly what motivates you to speak up is varied. According to the Financial Conduct Authority, addressing the issues with non financial whistleblowing claims comes down to poor culture dictated by the leadership team and the key to changing the landscape of claims they see is organisations fostering a "speak up culture". Its apparent to us that organisations simply don't know what that means. When long running organisations have developed their culture over many years, changing the way they operate and respond to the worlds changing demands is difficult.  And it involves transformational change management programmes that are robust in their scrutiny of how they are affecting the day to day operations in the business. They take time to embed through coaching, training and mentoring schemes as well as deep evaluation of the problems and impact. Without this kind of challenge what happened with the Post Office and Imperial College Healthcare Trust, are just the tip of the iceberg.

So what stands in the way of a speak up culture? The answer is pretty simple: Leadership. But why, what is it about leadership that creates the silencing of voices? Our skills and knowledge are developed over years, and we learn how to operate from the world around us. If the environment in which we learn teaches us that we have all the answers and asking for help is a sign of weakness, we start to believe our own version of the truth. It's this that leads Senior Executives to act without integrity; challenging them is a hard prospect pitted with dangers including manipulation or loss of your job.  In these situations Senior Leaders create a world where anyone who does challenge is ostracised or removed and so begins the commonly known groupthink that enables issues such as the Post Office and indeed the Imperial College Healthcare Trust to enable a world that denies the reality, ignoring the cold hard facts that belies the gravity of the problems. Groupthink was coined by Yale University social psychologist Irving Janis in 1972, and its definition is behaviours that naturally turn a blind eye to wrong doing in an organisational setting:

• Groupthink is a phenomenon in which individuals overlook potential problems in the pursuit of consensus thinking.
• Any dissenters in the group who may attempt to introduce a rational argument are pressured to come around to the consensus and may even be censored.
• Groupthink is particularly dangerous in political situations where no single actor has all of the relevant information.
• Groupthink can be reduced by inviting criticism or appointing one person to act as a "devil's advocate" against the group.

It is possible to create a "Speak Up" culture and yet, an awareness that changing mindsets takes both time and acknowledgement of the need for change. Most often that's driven by a business critical need, either poor customer feedback or drop in revenue.  Transformation programmes of this scale take time to embed and groupthink at this scale can be really challenging to address, however don't let that stop you, because once transformation starts to take an upward turn it reaps great results. Not only does revenue increase but employee engagement starts to improve and essentially the company becomes a better performing all round. For our help in addressing this, get in touch with us here at Fresh Seed. As you ponder if it's something you need in your organisation, here our top five principles to workplace transformation:

1. Work with a coach. Coaches create a safe setting where you can challenge your mindset.
2. HR is a trusted partner. HR will help navigate the process of investigating claims. In both the Post Office & Imperial College Trust scandals, if HR had been involved there would have been different outcomes, had there been fair investigation and all claims were fully addressed.
3. Find a whistleblowing system that provides feedback regarding issues.
4. Invest in a training programme to train your staff in active listening and fundamental line management skills. The most common issue we see with Line Managers is that they've not been given the tools for the role.
5. Create "speak up" champions.  Like all aspects of diversity, inclusion and mental health, having champions are a really powerful part of the business. Providing individuals with the training and support to help those calling out issues will help you not only track trends but address issues before they become scandalous.

If you'd like more help with any of this or you've been affected by any of the scandals we discuss here, please get in touch and we'll be happy to help and assist you with support or discuss our services further.