Concerns about the quality of a promising new product kept under wraps. Obvious tension and discord between two team members overlooked. The disconnect between the team’s stated values and its actual behavior left unstated.

Despite all the focus on fostering psychologically safe workplaces, teams remain rife with undiscussables: topics that are too obscured or feel too challenging to surface and discuss. What unites the varied topics consciously or unwittingly deemed off-limits is that they exist because they help us avoid short-term discomfort and conflict. But undiscussables also exist because there is a perception gap: leaders overestimate how freely their team members will speak. Leaders feel psychologically safer than their team members, and the false consensus effect makes them prone to assume others share their team-related perceptions and experiences. Read this great HBR article to find out more