How often do striking headlines draw attention to allegations of misconduct, questions of accountability or the conduct of someone who has enjoyed considerable influence? Whispers become curious chatter. “Who knew what was happening?” “Why was nothing done sooner?” “How could someone in such a position have escaped accountability?”
Reasonable questions, although the circumstances and outcomes of individual cases can be very different. Yet how often are those same questions considered closer to the ground, where workplace concerns arise within businesses whose names are unlikely to appear in the headlines?
Take The Humming Company (a fictional business for illustrative purposes). There is a person who has worked alongside the founder from almost the very beginning (the person everyone turns to when the founder is not around). They are trusted, respected and a part of the business’s success. The founder knows them well and has every reason, based on their own experience, to value their contribution. Then a concern about their conduct is raised.
Does the relationship change how that concern is heard?
The Humming Company
The Humming Company is a small creative agency with an internal community of fifteen people, including the founder and two managers. One of the managers, Alex, has worked alongside the founder for almost fifteen years, contributing to the business from its early beginnings. Alex knows the customers, understands how the work is carried out and has become the unofficial deputy.
In a small business where individuals often carry responsibilities beyond their formal roles, Alex’s experience, established relationships and contribution are valued.
Sam is a relatively new member of the team, bringing creative skills to the agency. Sam is particularly good at developing visual concepts, preparing designs and bringing together polished proposals for clients. However, the work also involves researching client requirements, reviewing lengthy briefs and processing substantial amounts of written information, which Sam finds more time-consuming.
As proposals begin to take longer than expected, Alex notices that work is bottlenecking with Sam. During their conversations, Sam has explained on several occasions that reading and processing large amounts of information takes longer and that the allocated turnaround times are proving difficult to meet.
Sam is keen to contribute and has suggested that the research element could be shared with another member of the team who enjoys that work, allowing Sam to concentrate more on the creative development and presentation of the proposals.
Alex, who is reviewing Sam’s work, is concerned about the delays and the effect on client deadlines. Despite their conversations, the allocation of work and expected turnaround times remain unchanged.
What Everyone Begins to Hear
At The Humming Company, the work continues. Proposals are being prepared, clients are expecting responses and the team is working towards agreed deadlines.
For Sam, uncertainty is growing. The creative work is something Sam enjoys and does well, but reading and processing substantial amounts of information takes longer. Having explained this to Alex on several occasions, Sam confides in a teammate they work well with, sharing a growing concern about being the weakest link in the team. The other manager happens to overhear the conversation.
Alex hears something different. Client deadlines are approaching, proposals are taking longer than expected and other members of the team may need to accommodate the delays. Having contributed to the business for many years, Alex takes pride in seeing work completed and customers satisfied.
Among the team, experiences vary. Some welcome the opportunity to combine their research skills with Sam’s creative strengths, producing proposals together. Others may feel that the distribution of work is uneven or that their own opportunities to develop creative skills are being limited.
For the founder, much of the day may be spent nurturing customer relationships and securing new business. Returning to the workplace, the founder might hear the cooing of discussions or find everyone concentrating in silence. Neither immediately reveals whether the business ecosystem is working in rhythm or struggling with competing expectations. What reaches the founder may be a completed proposal, feedback from a client or news of another missed deadline.
All fifteen people are part of the same business, but they are not necessarily hearing the same cadence.
A Policy Cannot Respond on Its Own
The Humming Company may already have policies and procedures covering performance, workplace conduct, training and development, and the ways in which concerns are raised and addressed. These are the roots intended to support consistent practice throughout the business.
Yet a policy cannot hear Sam expressing concern about being the weakest link. Nor can a procedure recognise the pride Alex takes in meeting deadlines and maintaining customer relationships.
That understanding comes from the people working within the business.
Sam’s reading pace does not diminish the creative skills brought to the agency. It may mean that particular projects require more time, a different distribution of work or opportunities to develop additional skills. Alex’s concern about meeting client expectations is equally relevant. Both experiences deserve consideration within the same working environment.
The difficulty begins when an emerging concern is recognised but the arrangements for addressing it remain unclear, overlooked or unused. Conversations may take place, expectations may be repeated and work may continue, without anyone establishing whether a different approach is needed.
This is where leadership responsibility matters because the business needs an understood approach to recognising concerns, considering individual circumstances and deciding how to move forward. The leadership team or founder is not expected to personally resolve every difficulty instantly. Sometimes a pause for observation and reflection is needed.
A conversation worth having
For a founder facing a live concern, that pause may benefit from a focused conversation. A Flutter Clarity Session offers 60 minutes to explore what is happening, where the difficulty is presenting itself and what might need consideration before deciding on the next step.
A policy may express the intention to treat people fairly. A procedure may establish how concerns should be considered. The culture develops through what people experience when those arrangements are put into practice.
The existence of a policy is not the same as the experience of being able to rely upon it.
The Value of the Whole Business
At The Humming Company, Sam has already spoken up through ordinary conversations about the difficulties being experienced at work. Those conversations have not produced a change in the working arrangements. Sam has begun questioning their own contribution, while others within the business are becoming aware that something may need attention.
It would be easy to suggest that Sam should be more assertive, that a person within the business should intervene. Yet doing so places responsibility for bringing the concern forward on the willingness of an individual to stand out.
Speaking up should not need to become an act of heroism.
An internal community needs to understand how concerns can move beyond informal conversations, who is responsible for considering them and how decisions are communicated. That does not mean every concern will result in the change requested. It means there is an understood approach through which circumstances can be examined and a reasoned decision reached.
For The Humming Company, the concern is now part of the wider business ecosystem. There are different experiences, competing expectations and information that may not yet have been brought together. Before deciding what needs to change, there is value in observing what is happening and understanding where the difficulty lies.
The founder or leadership team may need time to reflect, seek additional perspectives or consider what support is appropriate. The responsibility for determining the way forward remains with those leading the business.
The value of the whole business is reflected in more than the work being completed. It is also found in the confidence people have in raising concerns, the trust that those concerns will receive consideration and the working relationships that allow individuals to contribute.
When those experiences are overlooked, the cost may not appear immediately in the business accounts. It can be felt in the energy spent navigating uncertainty, the time consumed by repeated difficulties and the opportunities that may be lost when people are unable to contribute as effectively as they could.
The roots provide a foundation for consistent practice, leadership carries responsibility for how that practice is understood and applied, and the culture between them develops through what the internal community experiences.
What Are You Hearing?
There will always be circumstances where speaking up requires courage. Recognising that courage is important, but celebrating the individual should not distract from understanding why it was necessary in the first place.
The Humming Company has not experienced a public scandal. There is no dramatic confrontation or extraordinary act of leadership. There is an everyday concern, shared through ordinary conversations, which has yet to receive the consideration it may deserve.
Looking through the HUM lens, this everyday concern reveals how people, policies and leadership responsibility contribute to the culture experienced within a business.
A founder cannot be expected to hear every conversation or recognise every difficulty as it emerges. Leadership responsibility includes ensuring there are understood ways for those concerns to be heard, considered and addressed without relying on the courage or persistence of any one individual.
For those wishing to explore this further, The Ethical Ecosystem private mailing list continues the conversation through the experiences of those carrying leadership responsibility, including the uncertainty and competing considerations that can accompany difficult decisions.