When To Speak Out

You're at a meeting and an issue arises that you are informed on and on which you have an opinion or an important insight. However, your comments do not agree with what appears to be a consensus among the members of the meeting. When do you speak up? How do you broach the subject? Or do you sit back and hope that someone else will speak to the topic and therefore you will not have to get up in front of a crowd and speak.

I speak in front of crowds frequently, and do so with little anxiety. I enjoy being asked to share my insights and inspirations. But when I'm in front of a group of my peers, I tend to get nervous. I have as much experience as most of them, and more education than most of them, but there is something about a group of peers that tends to intimidate me. The problem with not speaking, even when one's insights are obviously outside of the seeming consensus is that there is a tendency for something known as "groupthink" to occur.

Groupthink is the enemy of innovation and creativity. Groupthink tends to keep everyone going in the same direction without asking if this is the direction we should be going.

The fact is that there is a time to speak, and we should respect the process enough to allow others with various opinions to be heard. In fact, we should encourage diversity of perspectives because if we are all standing on one side of the mountain, we will all have but a part of the picture, not the entire picture. We need to hear from the other side.

If you are informed on the subject, and have another perspective to add to the discussion, do not sit back. Add your voice and be willing to be different.