Silence is a gold brick

Often the person most knowledgeable about a particular job is the individual actually performing it. But all too frequently he is not offered the opportunity to say whether the job could be performed more effectively, or he hesitates to bring matters of concern or opinion to the attention of management because of fear of being misunderstood. As a result many problems go unsolved. To encourage upward communication a number of approaches may be employed; and where such schemes operate effectively, as with IBM's Speak Up, there can be a handsome pay‐off.