I Lost My Voice—Your Shot of Fearless Culture #394
Where change agents find their weekly dose of culture insights and exercises, one topic at a time.
Last week I lost my voice. Literally.
I was facilitating a client workshop when, all of a sudden, I couldn’t speak. Not that I didn’t try, but my voice betrayed me. It vanished, the result of a gnarly flu I was still recovering from.
In my work, my voice is everything. The first emotion was panic, like I had disappeared. I was there but I couldn’t share my thoughts, challenge the team, or ask participants questions.
That experience was a revelation. It reminded me of how people’s voices disappear—not because of health issues, but because of cultural ones.
Like anonymous feedback. When people are asked to participate, yet their voices are neutralized, silenced, and become part of the average. When we turn individual voices into a single one, it's like people have gone mute.
Instead of listening to individual perspectives, we just get generic input. Instead of encouraging dialogue, we just get one-sided conversations. Instead of understanding what people say, leaders end up working on assumptions.
This week, I challenge anonymous feedback—not using it intentionally when really needed, but how it has become the default mode for how many organizations collect feedback.
It's not just voices that get lost, but also ownership. When people don't attach their names to the problems they see, they feel no agency to contribute to solving them.
Explore this week's newsletter:
My latest article → The Anonymous Feedback Trap: Why It Actually Undermines Honesty
Practical tips and activities to promote open feedback
Stay fearless, my friend.
Gustavo
In Case You Missed It
Ask Your Team This
What are anonymous surveys not telling us about what’s really going on?
⚠️ Try This
Rewrite the Survey
Take your last anonymous survey results and transform vague statements into a conversation.
Step 1: Pick 3-5 comments from your most recent survey
Step 2: Invite your team to ‘translate’ them into specific, first-person statements using their own voice
Examples:
"Some people feel leadership doesn't listen" → "I feel unheard when decisions are made without our input.""Communication needs improvement" → "I need updates on project changes within 24 hours to do my job effectively."
"Work-life balance is poor" → "We keep changing our priorities which requires doing the same work twice."
Step 3: Discuss the shift:
What insights feel sharper now?
Which points sparked a real conversation?
How might we respond differently now that there’s clarity and ownership?
🍦 Feed Your Curiosity
Where measuring engagement goes wrong
Can we discuss your anonymous feedback?
Why anonymous surveys might not fix your problems
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Designing a culture that drives the behaviors you actually need
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Gustavo Razzetti
CEO, Fearless Culture
Thanks for a great post which I look forward to receiving each week. It is what I am aspiring to do.
I was thinking about this group you were working with. I wondered whether there was a culture which allowed them to work through the topic/challenge at hand without you, or whether someone would have stood up and stepped in - not to save you, but to acknowledge the disruption in the status quo and the need to work with it. Some groups/cultures look to the authority in the room (the facilitator), to keep things going. It would be great if this could shift.
Anyway, keep up the great work.