Freedom to Speak Up Bolton

19/12/2025

𝗜𝗳 workers 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘂𝗽,
𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 — 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻.
Silence is often mistaken for agreement.
In reality, it’s usually fear, self-protection, or exhaustion.
People stop speaking up when they learn it’s safer to stay quiet than to be honest.

Not because they don’t care — but because they care enough to protect themselves.
Over time, this silence becomes expensive.
Ideas go unshared.
Mistakes go unreported.
Innovation slows.
Engagement fades.
And teams show up physically — but check out emotionally.

𝗣𝘀𝘆𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹-𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁.
𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁.
It’s the belief that you can:
• Share ideas without being punished
• Ask questions without looking incompetent
• Admit mistakes without fear
• Challenge decisions respectfully
• Be yourself without consequences
When leaders create safety, people bring their best thinking.
When they don’t, people bring only what’s required.

𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘁.
𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁.
And trust is built in everyday moments:
How feedback is received.
How mistakes are handled.
How dissent is treated.
How power is used.
If people feel they have to choose between honesty and safety,
they’ll choose safety — every time.

16/12/2025

Seen on Linked In :

🎄The 12 Questions of Christmas
Meaningful, psychologically safe questions will help leaders hear what employees often hold back.

1. What part of this year has felt most rewarding for you?

Helps you understand where people genuinely feel energised

2. What has felt most frustrating, draining, or unnecessarily hard?

Gives people space to express pressure they’ve carried alone.

3. When have you felt most supported, and least supported by the team?

Reveals culture blind spots that don’t show up in reports.

4. Is there anything you haven’t felt comfortable raising before now?

This is where truth often finally appears.

5. What would make your day-to-day work easier or more enjoyable?

Often uncovers simple fixes that dramatically improve morale.

6. Do you feel you can speak openly about concerns without negative consequences?

A direct measure of psychological safety.

7. What’s one thing we should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing?

A simple, structured way to invite honest feedback.

8. Do you feel recognised and appreciated for what you’ve contributed?

Recognition is one of the biggest predictors of engagement.

9. What’s something you need from us that you’re not currently getting?

Shows whether the organisation is meeting basic needs.

10. What’s something you’d like to learn or develop next year?

Highlights growth — or signals disengagement.

11. How are you feeling about your future here?

A gentle question that often reveals unspoken intentions.

12. What would make 2026 a better year for you at work?

The perfect closing question — focused, hopeful, actionable

🎄Why these questions matter so much right now

The end of the year is when people finally have space to think.
It’s when they step back and ask themselves:
“Am I happy here?”
“Do I feel respected?”
“Is this environment good for my wellbeing?”
“Is this where I want to be next year?”
And if the honest answer is no, many quietly decide to explore their options in January.
As leaders set bold goals for 2026, employees are doing the same.
And for some, that goal is a new job — not because they want to leave, but because they don’t feel safe to stay.

🎄What happens when these questions go unasked?
Unspoken issues don’t disappear.
They simply travel with people into the new year:
Minor frustrations become major patterns
Morale dips in January
Confidence erodes
Talented people quietly plan their exit
Silence can be expensive in so many ways for businesses.
Listening is transformative.

🎄December is your culture reset moment
This is the moment to pause — really pause — and say:
“We want next year to feel different.
We want you to feel heard.
Tell us what we haven’t seen.”
Leaders who ask these questions now signal something powerful:
We care enough to listen — before you decide to walk away.

🎄Culture resolutions for 2026
Once you’ve asked the questions, commit to:
• Listen early
• Respond fast
• Protect every voice
• Measure progress
• Celebrate improvement
Small actions, repeated consistently, build trust.

🎄Final thoughts......
While leaders review the numbers, employees review their future.
The 12 Questions of Christmas might be the difference between someone staying — or silently deciding it’s time to go.
Let’s make 2026 the year your people feel truly safe, valued and heard.

10/12/2025

Human Rights Day — A Reminder of Why Speaking Up Matters
As a Freedom to Speak Up Guardian in the NHS, today feels especially important.

Human Rights Day isn’t just a date on the calendar, it’s a call to action. A reminder that dignity, respect, fairness and safety aren’t optional extras; they are the foundations of compassionate, inclusive care and healthy workplaces.

In our NHS, speaking up is one of the most powerful ways we protect those rights; for patients, colleagues, and for ourselves.

A few truths worth holding onto today:�🔹 Everyone has the right to be heard — no matter their role, background or status.�🔹 Safety is a human right — psychological safety included.�🔹 Fair treatment is non-negotiable — and silence never fixes injustice.�🔹 Culture is shaped by courage — and every voice helps move us forward.

Human Rights Day reminds us that when we empower people to speak up without fear, we’re not just improving processes, we are upholding the values the NHS was built on.

Let’s keep enabling, encouraging and protecting every voice.�Rights aren’t abstract, they are not on the nice to have list. They are essential, they are human. They start with us.

09/12/2025

Civility is simply respectful, courteous interaction between colleagues

Higher civility links with satisfaction, wellbeing and commitment

Low civility links with burnout and intention to leave

Organisations often try to stop incivility instead of building civility

And yet we often overlook it. No policy or team away day required. Just people treating each other well, consistently.

Small behaviour changes make the biggest difference:

• leaders greeting people by name
• warm, clear communication (not long-winded emails)
• quick appreciation rituals
• meetings where people actually listen

These micro-interactions change how safe people feel to speak up and get involved. Culture moves at the pace of behaviour.

Try it - Ask your team one question

“ What is one respectful behaviour we can commit to this month “

Keep it simple and watch the ripple effect……

06/12/2025

The current NHS finance issues and redundancy programme is taking a toll on everyone – not only those directly affected, but also the teams trying to lead and support people through it, often while facing the same uncertainty themselves. It’s heavy, relentless work and the pressure is real.

This is just a small reminder to us all and to anyone else who might need it: please take care of yourselves. Rest when you can, ask for support, and don’t ignore the warning signs. The work matters, but so does your health.

03/12/2025

Really proud to be the Chair of the NW FTSU Network 💚 and proud to chair the recent NW Conference

03/12/2025

Many teams are missing one crucial element.
It is not talent. It is not strategy.
It is trust.

Teams often chase performance without building the foundation that supports it.

They introduce new tools and set ambitious goals,
but progress rarely lasts without trust.

Many leaders expect trust to come from big moments.
In reality, it grows from consistent, everyday behaviour.

Here is how trust develops inside a team:

T — Transparency
→ Share the real numbers, not only the positive ones
→ Admit when you do not have all the answers
→ When leaders hide information, people fill the gaps themselves

R — Reliability
→ Keep the small promises first
→ The quick favour you mentioned matters more than you think
→ People judge future behaviour by the small things

U — Understanding
→ Listen to understand, not to react
→ Ask questions like “help me understand”
→ Trust increases when people feel properly heard

S — Support
→ Make helping the default
→ Take responsibility for failures publicly
→ Offer solutions instead of blame

T — Thanks
→ Give specific appreciation in the moment
→ Recognise contribution daily, not once a year
→ Share credit openly and take responsibility quietly

Trust is built slowly but can disappear quickly.

That is why consistency matters.
When trust is strong:
Teams execute faster
• They keep their best people
• They avoid politics and wasted effort

02/12/2025

Organisational culture is often treated like a performance switch. Fix the culture and results improve. The evidence paints a more measured picture.

Your organisational culture does influence performance, but the link is indirect, inconsistent and dependent on context.

Here’s what recent occupational psychology research shows:

The relationship between organisational culture and performance is modest.

Culture has a stronger link to engagement, teamwork, wellbeing and innovation than to hard KPIs.

Positive culture and climate link to lower stress and better staff outcomes, especially in healthcare.

Misalignment between stated values and lived behaviour damages trust and results.

Leadership behaviour, role clarity, recognition and fairness sit at the centre of this relationship.

In plain terms:
You don’t change performance by rewriting values.

You change performance by shifting the conditions people work in every day.

That means looking at:

How safe people feel to speak up

How decisions are actually made

How work is prioritised and resourced

How recognition and feedback show up

How conflict, mistakes and difference are handled

Rather than asking:

“How do we fix our organisational culture?”

A more useful question is:

What does our current organisational culture make easy for people… and what does it block?

One simple action for this week

Ask your team one question:

What’s one thing in our culture that helps you do your job well, and one thing that gets in the way?

Then listen. Don’t defend. Just listen.

26/11/2025

There are so many changes within healthcare at the moment, it's important to remind ourselves that professional courtesy goes both ways.

It’s completely human to feel heightened emotions when we’re navigating uncertainty. We’ve all been there. But it’s important to remember that uncertainty is not an excuse for consistently poor behaviour or for disregarding the impact we have on others.

Many people around us will be doing their best to be mindful, patient, empathetic and considerate. Even when they, too, may be under pressure. That effort deserves to be acknowledged and reciprocated.

In challenging moments, choose to see the bigger picture.

Choose respect.
Choose courtesy.
Choose to treat others as you would hope to be treated.

Workplaces function best when we remember that professionalism isn’t just about competence, it’s about how we show up for each other.

If you're struggling in any way, reach out to someone, they may be experiencing the same. 💚

25/11/2025

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23/11/2025

As FTSU Guardians we often see staff who are off sick and speak up about a perceived lack of support from their manager about getting back to work which leaves them feeling not valued.

I saw this on another site and thought it was really useful for managers dealing with long term sickness and supporting staff to return to work;

5 direct questions you should ask long-term sick employees (that most managers are too scared to ask) to help get them back to work.

When dealing with long-term sickness absence, most managers default to the classic lines:
“How are you feeling?”
“Do you think you’ll be back soon?”

Nothing wrong with asking these, asking how someone is feeling is human.

But, they rarely move the situation forward.
After these questions, most managers then crumble…

They avoid direct questions.
They don’t want to say the wrong thing.
And the case drags on for months longer than it needs to.

If you want clarity, honesty and a realistic return plan, these are the questions you need to ask:

1. “Right now, what specifically is the biggest thing stopping you from coming back to work?”

Cuts through vague answers. Gets the real barrier.

2. “What specifically would help you to return?”

Shifts the focus from problems → solutions. Offers support and gives your employee a voice to feel heard.

3. “If we applied [the support they need] to reduce [their biggest barrier]… how would that look to you?”

You've acknowledged their answers. You're using them constructively. This is where the employee starts building their own return plan.

4. “What else would help you feel more confident about returning?”

Uncovers fears, triggers and practical adjustments. Often the real answers come out here.

5. “If we put the right support in place, do you think returning to this role is realistic for you? If not, have you had a think about what your other options might be?”

This is the question managers avoid - But it’s the one that prevents long-term drift and opens up honest conversation about capability, redeployment or alternative outcomes.

Use these five questions and you’ll get clearer answers, faster resolution, and far more successful return-to-work plans, without conflict or cases dragging on for months longer than they should.

13/11/2025

World Kindness Day is a yearly event created to celebrate kindness and all of its wonderful benefits. This special day is a fantastic opportunity to promote kindness in all forms, such as acceptance, diversity and love!

Even if you are always kind to others - do something extra kind today and keep it going 💚❤️

The world would be such a better place if we could all show more kindness to one another x