Edgar Schein, a former MIT Sloan School organizational development expert and author of Humble Inquiry, has observed that a problem plaguing most organizations is poor upward communication—it’s “a major pathology,”51 he says. “Subordinates know lots of things that would make the place work better or safer that they for various reasons withhold.” When asked why they withhold much-needed information, employees typically answer that bosses and managers don’t want to hear about problems, or worse, are likely to “shoot the messenger.” The only way to change this, Schein says, is for the manager to
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