Build Feedback Systems that Unlock Grassroots Innovation.

Create Psychological Safety and Strategic Clarity to Transform Employee Input into Competitive Advantage.

Centralization Silences the Employees Closest to Problems

Lego Group's leadership team used a playground blueprint in 2017 to reinvigorate culture amid flatlining sales. Chief People Officer Loren Shuster established a cross-functional working group of 15 employees to articulate new leadership principles and recruited volunteers from 1,200 teams to serve as "playground builders." Eight years later, Lego achieved record results in 2024 with revenues up 13% to around $10 billion.

Former Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst spoke openly about the culture of "vigorous debate" where engineers openly challenged leadership decisions without retribution. At Netflix, "radical honesty" meant every single person could speak frankly about what needed to change. At Airbnb, "Elephant, Dead Fish, Vomit" sessions promote "fearless feedback."

These examples remain the exception. At most workplaces, "terminally nice" cultures persist where employees keep thoughts to themselves. The bigger an organization gets, the more centralized decisions become, says Karin Hurt, co-author of Courageous Cultures. "You can't grow and have 200 people all providing input on everything. But there's a sweet spot where you get the clarity and structure of decision-making and still tap into innovative ideas."

Flattery Creates Dangerous Blind Spots For Leadership

Being told she sounded "stupid" by Sheryl Sandberg led Kim Scott to write Radical Candor. Scott believes cultures encouraging "compassionate candor" make organizations more dynamic and successful. "Flattery will come at you like a thick dangerous fog," she says. "The big risk to leaders is ignorance. They don't know what's really happening if people are afraid to tell them."

Google's Project Aristotle sought what made the perfect team. The conclusion: what mattered was not who was on the team, but how the team worked together. The norm that came out on top: psychological safety. The concept posits that to thrive at work, people must feel they can speak up, share ideas, and admit mistakes without fear of repercussions.

Purpose Congruence Transforms Tasks into Cathedral Building

This proximity between organizational mission and employee values creates "a very powerful force," says Maryam Kouchaki, professor at the Kellogg School of Management. She shares the metaphor of three bricklayers. One says they're laying a brick, the second building a wall, and the third: "we're building a cathedral."

At LinkedIn, former Senior Vice President Kevin Scott would open job interviews asking: What job would you like to have after you leave LinkedIn? "It allows the manager to acknowledge the truth that the employee will not be there forever," says Chris Yeh, co-author of The Alliance.

Aviation Disasters Prove Steep Power Gradients Prevent Safety Reporting

After miscommunication contributed to the 1977 Tenerife airport disaster, Crew Resource Management procedures were adopted by all major airlines. "One of the immediate realizations was the role of a steep power gradient," says Tom Geraghty, founder of Psych Safety. "The steeper the difference, the less likely people are to speak up." That's why pilots now introduce themselves with their first name.

Employees also need "strategic clarity," or guidance where their ideas are welcomed. "If you have high psychological safety, but people don't understand the strategy, you're going to get a lot of ideas, but not necessarily the remarkable ideas that you need," says Hurt.

Focused Campaigns Generate Ideas that Deliver Measurable Returns

Tell people when you want their feedback and repeat this ask several times, ideally five times in five different ways, recommends Hurt. Managers should also be specific with the ask.

At Balfour Beatty, the "My Contribution" initiative requests ideas through focused campaigns on strategic topics. Since launching in 2015, it has received more than 15,000 ideas from UK employees. In 2024 alone, it saved an estimated 53,800 hours and around $4 million.

How leadership responds is crucial. Listen, challenge, commit: Scott's three pillars for framing responses. Hurt calls this "responding with regard": gratitude first, then information about why ideas won't be used or what's needed to make them viable, then close the loop publicly. "Fifty per cent of people in our research said the reason they don't contribute ideas is because they think nothing will happen as a result."

Radical Candor Requires Boundaries

When Netflix fired three marketing executives for "grousing about colleagues" on Slack, the company was accused of undermining its culture of "radical candor." But an open culture isn't about giving employees free rein to act with "obnoxious aggression," points out Scott.

"Hierarchy is essential," adds Yeh. "The fact that you are an ally does not mean you're not still a person's manager. It's up to the manager to create an environment where the employee is going to feel like they can thrive."

Recommendations

• Establish five-by-five feedback requests, ask for input five times in five different ways.

• Create focused idea campaigns on strategic topics rather than open-ended suggestion boxes.

• Deploy three-pillar response framework, listen, challenge, commit.

• Implement "responding with regard" protocol: gratitude first, then information, then close the loop publicly.

• Train managers to reduce power gradients through micro-level interactions borrowed from aviation safety protocols.

Bottom Line: Grassroots Feedback Requires Safety Plus Strategic Clarity.

Lego Group's 13% revenue growth to $10 billion following its "leadership playground" initiative demonstrates the competitive advantage of opening corporate floors to contributors at all levels. Psychological safety enables employees to speak up without retribution, but requires strategic clarity about where input is welcomed. Balfour Beatty's focused campaigns saved 53,800 hours and $4 million in 2024 alone.

Hierarchy remains essential, but managers must create environments where employees feel objectives are clear. Flattery creates dangerous blind spots for leadership, while radical candor without boundaries devolves into obnoxious aggression.