Why does a good team end up with broken processes and a quietly toxic culture? Usually because the leader stopped listening long before anything visibly broke. In this episode, Colby Morris introduces The Feedback Blackout, the three-stage slide by which honest information stops flowing up to a leader until the operation breaks and the leader blames the system instead of the silence. The broken process, it turns out, is the last thing to break. Not the first.

Why are my team's processes broken when I have good people?

Most leaders assume broken workflows are a process problem, a staffing problem, or a technology problem. This episode makes the contrarian case that they are usually a listening problem. Good people don't stop caring. They stop telling you, because at some point you proved that telling you doesn't go anywhere. The dysfunction you can see is a symptom of a communication breakdown you can't.

What is The Feedback Blackout?

The Feedback Blackout (Colby Morris) is the three-stage process by which the flow of honest information from a team up to its leader goes dark:

The leader stops asking the right questions (yes-or-no questions, status questions instead of reality questions, and reading silence as health).
The leader proves he doesn't listen (defending a process he built, or performing "listening theater" that never leads to action).
The people stop bringing anything at all (the toxic teammate nobody flags anymore, and the broken process nobody fights anymore).

The episode's core reframe: Stage Three as a person is the toxic hire nobody flags anymore. Stage Three as a system is the broken process nobody fights anymore. Same disease, two faces, and both of them are silence.

How do you fix a team that's stopped speaking up?

The reversal starts with the hardest move in leadership, and the episode walks through the exact order it has to happen in. The short version: you can't out-question a bridge you already burned. Something has to come first. (Colby names it in the episode, and it isn't a technique.)

Ask yourself (the diagnostic)

When did someone last bring me a problem before it became a crisis?
Is there a process on my team that I built and quietly refuse to hear criticism about?
Is there a person everyone used to flag to me, and now nobody mentions?
When I ask "are we good?", am I asking a real question, or asking permission to stop looking?
What has my team stopped bringing me, and what did I do to teach them to stop?

When to apply this guidance

Your operation feels broken and you've already tried new tools, new software, or a reorg without it sticking
Your team has gotten suspiciously quiet and you've been reading that as a good sign
You keep finding out about problems late, as emergencies instead of early warnings
There's a person or a process everyone works around, and nobody brings it up anymore
You're a leader honest enough to consider that the blackout might trace back to you

Research referenced in this episode

Gallup: Only about 1 in 4 employees strongly agree that their opinions count at work.
The Workforce Institute at UKG, "The Heard and the Heard-Nots": 63% of employees feel their voice has been ignored in some way by a manager or employer, and 34% would rather quit or switch teams than voice their true concerns to management.
Ethan Burris (University of Texas at Austin): Employees go quiet for two core reasons, fear and futility, with futility (the sense that speaking up leads nowhere) being the quieter and more corrosive of the two.

Related episodes

What Actually Builds Psychological Safety on Gen X-Led Teams (the in-the-moment, interpersonal side of this)
Stop Trying to Win Tough Conversations (Win the Trust Instead)
The Dirty Yes: Why Your Team Agrees With You and Does Something Else
One-on-One Meetings That Work: Build Trust, Track Goals, and Transform Your Team

Connect with Colby Morris

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/colbymorris
Website: NXTStepAdvisors.com

About The Things Leaders Do

The Things Leaders Do is a weekly leadership podcast hosted by Colby Morris, Founder of NXT Step Advisors. The show delivers practical, immediately actionable leadership tools for middle managers and senior leaders navigating real workplace challenges. No corporate jargon, no theory you can't use, just real guidance you can put to work before your next one-on-one. New episodes every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.