Ask the People Closest to the Work Before You Decide

TELLUMIND JOURNAL · LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES

Illustrative scenario: A leadership team redesigned the customer intake process in a conference room two floors above the reception desk. The new workflow looked elegant in the slide deck. By Tuesday, reception staff had invented three workarounds because the design assumed every caller had an email address, unlimited time, and the emotional serenity of a person ordering printer paper.

The people closest to the work hold information leaders cannot obtain from metrics alone. They see repeated friction, informal fixes, customer reactions, timing pressures, and unintended consequences. Psychological safety matters because people are more likely to share that information when they believe candor will not be punished or humiliated (Edmondson, 1999).

Invite information, not applause

Do not ask, “Does everyone agree?” after presenting a polished solution and checking the clock. Ask questions that make useful disagreement possible: What assumption are we making? Where will this fail on a busy day? Who carries new work? What would customers experience? What are we not seeing from this room?

Clarify the decision before collecting input

• Name what has already been decided and why.
• Specify what is genuinely open to influence.
• Invite people who experience the process, not only those who manage it.
• Use more than one channel so speed, status, or personality does not determine whose knowledge counts.
• Set a date for explaining what changed, what did not, and why.

Participation does not mean every preference becomes policy. Leaders still integrate constraints, evidence, equity, and accountability. The ethical failure is not choosing differently from a suggestion. It is pretending to invite influence when the decision is closed.

Watch the first response to bad news. If a frontline employee names a risk and receives defensiveness, cross-examination, or a lecture on positivity, the next risk may remain hidden. A better first response is: “Thank you. Walk me through what you are seeing.” Curiosity buys the organization information.

Tellumind helps leaders build cultures where voice leads to learning and visible follow-through. Before the next consequential decision, identify two people closest to the work and ask one question you cannot answer from the dashboard. Then close the loop. Listening becomes leadership when people can see what their knowledge changed.

References

• Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999