Rocha's statement captures a subtle but crucial aspect of the psychology of speaking up at work. Consider his words carefully. He did not say, “I chose not to speak,” or “I felt it was not right to speak.” He said that he “couldn't” speak. Oddly, this description is apt. The psychological experience of having something to say yet feeling literally unable to do so is painfully real for many employees and very common in organizational hierarchies, like that of NASA in 2003. We can all recognize this phenomenon. We understand why his hands spontaneously depicted that poignant vertical ladder. When probed, as Rocha was by Gibson, many people report a similar experience of feeling unable to speak up when hierarchy is made salient. Meanwhile, the higher ups in a position to listen and learn are often blind to the silencing effects of their presence.

That’s when the third level, collective judgment, zaps you: You’ve broken a social rule; you should always look happy and prosperous. Enter the fourth level. You feel bad. It’s bad to feel bad. You are bad. The judgment judges the judgment, and lays the blame of you.

A culture of candor does not mean that you can speak your mind without concern for how it will impact others. On the contrary, it requires that everyone think carefully about the 4A guidelines. This requires reflection and sometimes preparation before you give feedback, as well as monitoring and coaching from those in charge.

That kind of information is what we call common sense, and people who lack it encounter serious difficulties in everyday life. The ability to make judgements of context is the skill that is deficient in autistic individuals, who interpret problems literally. Working to rule— the refusal to apply common sense in interpreting the duties of employment— is notoriously disruptive.

Designers learn to have lots of wild ideas because they know that the number one enemy of

creativity is judgment. Our brains are so tightly wired to be critical, find problems, and leap to judgment that it’s a wonder any ideas ever make it out! We have to defer judgment and silence the inner critic if we want to get all our ideas out. If we don’t, we may have a few good ideas, but the majority will have been lost—silently imprisoned behind the wall of judgment our prefrontal cortex has erected to safeguard us from making mistakes or looking foolish.