The elephant in the room!

We all want to work in optimized organizations. You know enterprises that are high-performers and operationally efficient and effective.

To achieve this pinnacle, problems must be “rooted out” and identified, discussed, and resolved. But it is often uncomfortable for us to speak our minds.

We are human beings after all, and some things are difficult to talk about. We call this The Elephant in the Room. The Cambridge definition according to the Cambridge Dictionary is:

“If you say there is an elephant in the room, you mean that there is an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about.”

I came across a LinkedIn post from Michelle Benson focused on charities. As a person who strategically guides leaders, I can certainly relate to this. Can you?

Have you ever been in an internal meeting with an elephant in the room?

Ever stayed silent because:

• You'd be judged if you asked "stupid" questions.
• You didn't trust the people in the room.
• You were tired of the same old circular discussions.
• You didn't want to appear negative about what others were saying.
• You didn't want to make a colleague/department look bad.

Or perhaps you were silent, and like everyone else, you just talked around the issue…

The elephant of course is the obvious problem that no one wants to bring up.

Because the more everyone ignores it - the easier it is for everyone to get on.

Unfortunately, the more you ignore it, the bigger the “elephant” gets.

Ironically, even though the elephant is the problem, no one WANTS to talk about the real issue.

When in fact, it's the very thing everyone NEEDS to talk about.

Have you ever had an elephant in the room?

Connect with Michelle.