I recently saw Dr. Ed Schein speak at the South Bay Organizational Development Network meeting. Dr. Schein is professor emeritus from MIT and the one who practically invented OD process consultation. For me it was like going to a Stones concert and seeing Mick Jagger. I’ve been reading Dr. Schein’s work since the late 70s. Hearing his latest thinking was a real treat.

He got our attention by citing the well know literature around communication in hierarchical environments like airline cockpits and Operating Rooms. There, as most know, the egos, power dynamics, and norms are often such that co-pilots and nurses are afraid to speak up, counter, and especially confront pilots and doctors that are violating SOPs or not effectively factoring in new information. The results are too frequently tragic beyond words.

The implication is clear and disturbing: because they are not getting all the information they need, our leaders are skating on thin ice and they probably don’t even know it. If this is true, the number of preventable catastrophes could rise dramatically.

The issue is effective upward communication and it is not just pertinent in high stakes environments like surgical theaters and airplanes. Investigations of deaths from product defects in the auto, energy, and healthcare industries revealed that often subordinates were aware of problems and issues but were not willing to present them to management for reasons similar to the dynamics found in the well-researched, high-stakes environments.

So we have a phenomenon that can have tragic outcomes that is more widespread than we have probably been willing to acknowledge. Added to this is a world that is getting more complex where the people on a manager’s team are increasingly specialized and distributed, which means the boss may not have a good grasp on what they do.

The implication is clear and disturbing: because they are not getting all the information they need, our leaders are skating on thin ice and they probably don’t even know it. If this is true, the number of preventable catastrophes could rise dramatically.

The remedy according to Dr. Schein is an internal change in orientation: leaders have to realize that they are actually dependent on their employees even though they are “in charge.” In other words, our leaders are going to have to show more humility.

However, this attitudinal change will not be enough. Once an internal shift is made, managers will have to actively work to ensure they are creating a climate where sharing bad news and information that is counter to the current beliefs is not only tolerated by actively encouraged.

This will be no mean feat. Companies can talk about “failing fast” and not “shooting the messenger” all they want, but few managers I have known like bad news and try to create an environment where it is easy for employees to bring it to them.

So how do we create a climate where employees feel free to deliver candid assessments of a project’s likelihood of success, confront procedural violations, share negative test results or anomalous findings that point towards danger? I think this is where female leaders have a real advantage over their male counterparts and can show the way.

Few managers I have known like bad news and try to create an environment where it is easy for employees to bring it to them.

Behavioral economic research has repeatedly shown that men tend to be over-confident about their choices, whether warranted or not, and are less likely to seek others’ opinions. Female leaders on the other hand are much more likely to engage their employees and promote dialogue. This is exactly the kind of environment that allows information to flow freely among decision makers so the best possible decision can be made.

In this light, the increasing number of women in leadership positions is not only long overdue but could be seen as arriving in the nick of time. With increasing complexity, inter-dependency, distributed work environments and specialization, the ability to create a climate of open dialogue and an open flow of information up and down in the organization is not something we can afford to hope will gradually evolve.