Creating Trust and Openness
- Michael Matthew
- Dec 29, 2025
- 2 min read
(Why silence is the most dangerous condition at work)
If people aren’t speaking up, it’s not because nothing’s wrong.It’s because saying something feels riskier than staying quiet.
And that’s where serious incidents begin.
What People Don’t Say Matters More Than What They Do
On every job site, shop floor, and control room, people see things that don’t get reported.
A guard that doesn’t quite fit.A shortcut everyone uses on night shift.A task that training never really covered.
Most of the time, people notice.
They just don’t talk.
Silence Is a Signal — Not Compliance
When workers hesitate to report near misses or challenge unsafe work, it’s rarely about laziness or apathy.
It’s about trust.
Trust that:
Speaking up won’t come back to hurt them
Reporting won’t label them as “the problem”
Management actually wants to know the truth
Without that trust, hazards stay hidden — until they can’t be ignored anymore.
Fear Creates a False Sense of Safety
Picture this:
A piece of equipment isn’t working properly, but it still runs.A near miss happens, but no one was hurt.A new worker struggles, but doesn’t want to look incompetent.
So nothing gets reported.
Dashboards look clean.Metrics look good.Leadership feels confident.
Meanwhile, risk is quietly stacking up.
Trust Starts With What Leaders Do When Things Go Wrong
People watch closely when mistakes happen.
Do leaders ask, “Who did this?”Or do they ask, “What made this possible?”
When leaders openly acknowledge their own missteps — and what they learned — it sends a powerful message:
“We fix systems here. We don’t punish honesty.”
That’s when people start talking.
Reporting Has to Lead Somewhere
Nothing kills trust faster than feedback that disappears.
If someone reports:
A near miss
A design flaw
A training gap
…and nothing changes?
They won’t report again.
But when people see real action — equipment modified, procedures improved, training adjusted — trust compounds.
Transparency builds momentum.
Fairness Is the Foundation
People don’t expect zero accountability.
They expect fairness.
A workplace that distinguishes between:
Human error
Systemic weaknesses
Reckless behavior
creates clarity.
When reporting leads to learning — not blame — openness becomes the norm instead of the exception.
Trust Turns Workers Into Early Warning Systems
The strongest safety cultures don’t rely on inspections to find problems.
They rely on people.
When employees feel safe to speak up, they become your best source of:
Early risk detection
Practical solutions
Honest insight into how work really happens
That’s safety intelligence you can’t buy.
Final Thought
If your safety system depends on people staying quiet, it’s already failing.
So ask yourself:
What have you done lately that made it safer for someone to tell you the truth?
That answer will tell you how much trust you really have.
Michael Matthew Mike@SAFETY.INC Dec 2025
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