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PSYCHOLOGICAL-SAFETY5 MIN READ

Make bad news cheap to raise

Use a leader opening that makes early risk reporting normal rather than career-limiting.

The move: make the first report of trouble socially easier than silence. Why early bad news matters Teams rarely fail because nobody noticed the problem. They fail because the person who noticed did not believe the room would handle the truth well. The longer a risk stays private, the more the team learns from impact instead of prevention. What the leader does first Use an opening that lowers the interpersonal risk: "What feels brittle?" "What are we under-naming?" "What would make Friday fail?" Then reward the signal before you evaluate the person who raised it. That is how the room…

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