Speaking Up in a Culture of Silence

We know we should speak up and question what is being taken as normal in our work cultures - to notice and call out bad behaviour and resist being silenced. This book is a guide to what it takes to do this in a way that doesn't expose you to the countermeasures of people who do not like being questioned. What is explored through case studies and personal experience are ideas about how to resist being silenced at work where there are competing demands on your time and energy and where people have learnt to tolerate bad and uncivil behaviours just to get the work done. There are no magic solutions or calls for decisive action. Just some modest ideas about what can help you hold onto your voice and your thinking so that when the time is right, you can say something that just may help keep us all a bit safer.

David Naylor, DProf, MA, is a director of a consultancy practice researching and developing practical interventions to mitigate the effects of bullying and incivility for individuals, teams and services. Previously, he worked as a senior consultant at The King's Fund. He has a professional doctorate and a MA in organisational change. He trained in consultancy at the Tavistock, facilitation at the University of Surrey and has a diploma in psychodynamic counselling from Birkbeck.

Chapter 1 - Introduction Chapter 2 - The tyranny of the bed state meeting Chapter 3 - They would have died anyway Chapter 4 - Not in my name Chapter 5 - The origins of my talk and silence to speaking up Chapter 7 - Can we talk about our conversational culture? Chapter 8 - Walking off the map Chapter 9 - Staying hopeful