Redefining Openness: From Aspirational Value to Everyday Culture and Practice
“We want people to speak up. It’s a part of our culture.”
It’s a familiar phrase, echoed in team meetings, all-hands calls, and company town halls. And it’s usually sincere.
But the reality is this: most workplaces aren’t designed for people to actually do it.
Why? Because while openness is often named as a value, it’s rarely practiced as a behavior.
In today’s leadership landscape, where values are stated publicly but enacted privately, openness stands out as one of the most misunderstood cultural signals. Organizations want innovation, inclusion, and agility, but without the discomfort that real dialogue often brings.
That tension isn’t philosophical. It’s behavioral.
Culture Isn’t a Slide Deck. It’s a Set of Reactions
We’ve been trained to think of “culture” as an abstract force: the mood of a place, the mission statement, the vibe. But culture is actually built moment by moment—in how people behave under stress, disagreement, and uncertainty.
If someone challenges a decision in a meeting, what happens next?
- Does the room tighten?
- Does the leader pause with curiosity or respond with defensiveness?
- Does anyone else speak up after that?
That interaction says more about your culture than any value printed on a wall.
As professionals certified in Emotional Intelligence coaching, DiSC, MBTI, and 360, feedback, we’ve seen this dynamic across industries. Culture isn’t a list of aspirations, it’s a living system shaped by visible, repeatable behaviors.
And openness? It’s the litmus test for whether those behaviors align with your intentions.
Psychological Safety: Not a Bonus, A Baseline
The concept of psychological safety, coined by Amy Edmondson, is foundational for high-performing teams. But its real-world implementation remains elusive. It’s often treated as a “nice to have”, a perk reserved for already-functional teams, or a downstream outcome of strong leadership.
In reality, psychological safety is a prerequisite. Without it, feedback stalls, learning plateaus, and creativity die quietly.
Openness is the everyday expression of that safety.
It’s the difference between a leader who says, “My door is always open,” and one who follows up when someone hesitates in a meeting. It’s the difference between applauding ideas and actively creating space for friction.
Openness isn’t just about communication. It’s about conditions, the invisible cues that tell people what’s safe to say, and what’s better left unsaid.
What Openness Looks Like (and What It Doesn’t)
Openness is often misunderstood as being agreeable or overly accommodating. But real openness is more complex, and often more uncomfortable.
It looks like:
- Asking questions instead of making assumptions
- Allowing silence to invite voices that don’t usually speak
- Naming disagreement without rushing to resolve it
- Staying in dialogue even when emotions rise
And it doesn’t look like:
- Repeating “We value transparency” while ignoring dissent
- Listening for the sole purpose of responding
- Using “openness” as a shield to avoid making hard decisions
These behaviors are subtle, but they shape everything.
Through frameworks like Insights Discovery and 360 feedback processes, we help leaders see how their micro-behaviors shape team norms. Do they interrupt? Do they thank people for pushing back? Do they follow up privately when someone raises a concern?
This isn’t about performative empathy. It’s about modeling real emotional presence, especially when stakes are high.
The Emotional Labor of Leading Openly
Openness, done well, requires emotional labor. It demands self-regulation, humility, and a willingness to sit with discomfort. This isn’t something most leadership programs are built to address.
Too often, leadership training focuses on strategy and systems. But the hardest work of leadership is interpersonal. It’s learning how to stay grounded when you’re challenged. How to recognize your own defensiveness before it hijacks a conversation. How to shift from control to curiosity in real time.
At Synexe, we train leaders in these exact shifts. We use emotional intelligence frameworks, live coaching, and feedback loops that make the invisible visible. Because if a leader doesn’t see their own impact, they can’t change it.
And when they do start to change it, teams notice. Trust grows. Feedback flows. Real problems surface before they become crises.
That’s not theory. That’s behavioral science in motion.
Why Values Often Fail, And How to Translate Them Into Action
Most companies have a version of “Openness” on their values list. But ask ten employees what it means, and you’ll get ten answers.
That ambiguity is a problem.
Values without behavioral definitions become platitudes. They lose meaning, and worse, they create dissonance when leaders don’t live them out.
To close that gap, we work with clients to define behaviors tied to values. For example, what does “openness” mean when:
- Giving or receiving feedback?
- Making a high-stakes decision?
- Running a one-on-one meeting?
- Navigating disagreement in cross-functional teams?
These are the leadership moments that matter.
And they’re not just about training. They’re about visibility, modeling, and reinforcement.
Behavioral change doesn’t happen in abstract workshops. It happens when people see something different in action, and are supported to try it themselves.
Why Openness Is Hardest for High Performers
There’s another wrinkle here that’s important to name.
Openness often feels risky for everyone, but especially for high achievers. Leaders who’ve been rewarded for decisiveness, confidence, and control may struggle to shift toward inquiry and vulnerability. The very traits that earned them credibility may now be obstacles to trust.
That’s why this work requires nuance. We don’t ask leaders to “be less.” We help them expand their range. To know when clarity serves, and when curiosity does. When decisiveness helps, and when pause is more powerful.
This is the heart of leadership agility. And it’s especially vital in moments of change, uncertainty, or conflict.
Openness as a Leadership Standard, Not a Personal Trait
One final myth worth breaking: openness is not a personality trait. It’s a practice.
Whether you’re introverted or extroverted, analytical or expressive, you can build the behaviors that signal safety, invite ideas, and hold space for difference.
In our work across tech, healthcare, manufacturing, and finance, we’ve seen that the best leaders aren’t the most charismatic. They’re the most intentional. They understand their patterns. They adapt. They practice.
And they make it safe for others to do the same.
What Happens When Openness Becomes Expected?
Something powerful shifts when openness is not just tolerated, but expected.
- Teams stop waiting for permission.
- Feedback becomes part of the rhythm, not a special occasion.
- Leaders get more real data, because people stop hiding what’s true.
- Decisions improve. Trust deepens. Momentum builds.
This is not magic. It’s what happens when people feel psychologically safe to engage fully, and leaders show, over and over again, that openness won’t be punished.
That’s what we mean when we say: Openness isn’t just a value. It’s a behavior.
And more than that, it’s a test:
- A test of whether your values mean something.
- A test of whether your leaders are practiced, not just polished.
- A test of whether your culture is real when it matters most.
Final Thought
The next time you hear “We want people to speak up,” don’t ask if your team is open enough.
Ask: Have we made it safe enough?
Because what happens after someone speaks up is the moment that defines your culture.
And that moment is entirely in your hands.
Get in touch to open a dialogue about how your leaders reflect and champion your values. Or connect with us on LinkedIn.