Silence Isn’t Golden

Last week, our managing editor Daria attended a truly thought-provoking EO event, “Communication to be Heard and Remembered,” featuring Christina Harbridge, CEO of Allegory, a San Francisco based communications company. The next day, Daria and I spoke about what she took away from the program. One thing that we discussed really resonated with me. During her talk, Christina said, “Silence is not consent. Silence is silence.” How many times have we, as business owners, stood in front of our team, passionately describing a new project only to be met with a table of people taking notes and not doing much else? I know I’ve walked out of such meetings feeling good and believing everyone was as on-board. This idea that silence is not consent had me wondering, how many incorrect assumptions have I made about my employees’ silence? And how many projects could have benefited from a little dissention once in a while?