“I’m not happy with the direction we are going”. It was supposed to be our usual 1:1. Suddenly, it took an unexpected turn. As a manager these are probably not the words you wanted to hear, especially from a high performing team member that usually keeps to themselves.
Part of our role as managers is to foster a harmonious working environment that lets teams thrive. It was not easy realizing that the purported equilibrium I tried to maintain was not there in the first place. After licking my battle wounds, I realized: actually this person is giving me the chance to act before the worst outcome: “I quit”.
This realization brought me back to one of my favorite political science books: Exit, Voice, and Loyalty by Albert Hirschman. In his work, Hirschman explores different strategies people deploy in the face of a deteriorating product. As the title says, we can either remain using the product despite its lower quality (loyalty), buy another one (exit), or raise this issue to the supplier (voice).
Hirschman offers a compelling critique of why exit, normally emphasized as a market correcting mechanism, is not the only way people show their discontent. By voicing discontent, people are giving a chance for course correction.
The parallels in teams and organizations are striking. In the face of deteriorating conditions, members can decide to stay silent, quit and find another job, or raise their voice to enact change.
This is no different in any team, and as a manager you probably want to avoid exit. Here there are two mechanisms at play, one is within your realm of control and the other one is not. Let’s start with the latter.
People’s ability to exit depends on the exit options. In other words, if the job market is bad (as it currently is) people do not actually have a high chance of exiting. In the long term, you cannot rely on a bad market to keep your organizations together because conditions change quickly. Retention built on the scarcity in the market is just a delayed exit.
The second mechanism is where you have a real lever. You can encourage voice by lowering its cost. Companies try to do this by institutionalizing processes, like 1:1s, surveys, and feedback loops. But these are only as good as the trust underneath them. What actually lowers the cost of voice is the belief that speaking up won’t be held against you, and that someone is genuinely listening.
Voice is a real gift, and it works on two levels. First, it is a testament to the trust the person is placing in you. Second, it provides you with invaluable information on what is not working and what you can do to correct it. The next time someone on your team says ‘I’m not happy with the direction we are going,’ consider yourself lucky.