Beyond Speak Up: What We're Getting Wrong About Psychological Safety

What working across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia taught me about the myths we peddle

Three years ago, I published "Safe to Great - the New Psychology of Leadership." I was convinced psychological safety was about creating environments where everyone feels comfortable speaking openly, challenging ideas, and voicing concerns without fear.

Working exclusively within Western frameworks, this seemed not just effective but obviously right. Research supported it, case studies reinforced it, workshops confirmed its utility.

Then I started working extensively across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. And discovered I'd been peddling cultural imperialism disguised as leadership development.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Every power relationship is fundamentally a "speak softly" culture by design. Those with power benefit from the careful, encoded communication of those without it. I'd been asking people to abandon sophisticated communication systems that weren't broken—just different from what I'd been trained to recognize.

Power and status aren't barriers to psychological safety—they're sophisticated social technologies. But I was unconsciously promoting Western organizational idealism as universal truth, treating hierarchical cultures as problems to solve rather than systems to understand.

The Research That Changes Everything

Here's the kicker: according to the Globe Study (2004, 2011), Western leadership styles represent less than 10% of the world's population. The 2011 CEO study found that executives who lead according to their culture's expectations are most effective.

The Globe Study's Phase 3 surveyed 1,060 CEOs across 24 countries. The finding: leaders who behave according to cultural expectations significantly outperform those who don't.

Yet we've built an entire psychological safety industry around the communication preferences of the minority. Most of the world operates through hierarchical, indirect cultures where sophisticated communication happens through subtext and encoded dissent.

What Different Cultures Taught Me

Front-stage vs. Backstage: In many cultures, open confrontation or public disagreement is uncomfortable or culturally unacceptable. Genuine psychological safety often emerges backstage, through careful preparation, private alignment, and nuanced dialogue.

In cultures where nunchi (carefully reading interpersonal dynamics) governs interaction, where consensus-building preserves collective dignity, where respect for hierarchy isn't a barrier but a social technology—my Western frameworks were cultural vandalism disguised as leadership development.

Incremental Progress: Psychological safety in hierarchical cultures isn't about abandoning structure—it's about carefully navigating incrementally, like crossing a river by feeling for stones.

The Lattice Reality

Organizations aren't rigid hierarchies but complex lattices—informal networks through which communication and knowledge flow. Real intelligence exists within these informal pathways, accessible to those who actively seek it out and genuinely listen.

Leaders attempting to flatten hierarchies risk undermining communication methods refined over generations.

Listen Down and Loud

Instead of teaching leaders to create "speak up" cultures, I now explore how they can activate the intelligence that already flows through their organizations.

Listen Down: Don't wait for people to risk their careers bringing you information. Go where the work happens. Ask questions. Confirm understanding. Ask for advice. Follow the informal networks where intelligence actually flows.

Listen Loud: Develop the sophistication to read between the lines and understand subtlety. Learn how dissent gets encoded in respectful language, how concerns get wrapped in diplomatic phrasing. The loudness isn't volume—it's the intensity of attention required to decode sophisticated communication.

Effective leaders in diverse cultural contexts:

• Recognize indirect expressions of dissent and disagreement
• Understand strategic silences as powerful communication methods
• Master culturally informed active listening, attending not only to what's said but how, where, and by whom

Practical Insights

Understand Local Hierarchies: Leverage existing hierarchies constructively rather than attempting to dismantle them.

Build Psychological Safety Backstage: Create safe spaces for candid dialogue in informal, private settings.

Respect Face and Dignity: Protect individual reputations by avoiding public confrontation.

Develop Cultural Literacy: Invest in understanding actual communication practices within your specific cultural context.

The Bottom Line

Most of the world operates through "speak softly" cultures where the most sophisticated communication happens in whispers, subtext, and elegant indirection. The "speak up" industry has built a mythology that ignores this reality.

Stop asking people to overcome rational responses to power dynamics. Stop treating sophisticated communication systems as problems to solve.

Your teams already provide critical insights—in culturally appropriate ways. The real question isn't whether they're speaking up. It's whether you're sophisticated enough to hear how they actually communicate.

Are you listening in the right frequency, or are you still waiting for everyone to sound like you?

What's your experience with psychological safety across different cultural contexts? How does information really flow in your organization?

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