Articles

Mental well-being is critical for individuals, communities, and organizations, yet despite the lifting of taboos around mental health in society, employees are feeling less cared for than ever. So why are we still reluctant to talk openly about our mental well-being at work?

Leaders can play a critical role in facilitating these conversations by speaking up about their own experiences and encouraging others to do the same.

Speaking up — and being heard — in organizations is critical, but failed attempts to speak up happen often at work and can lead people to silence themselves and others in the long run. Instead, leaders and team members should frame such situations as opportunities to learn.

Generative AI has the fastest take-up of any technology to date. Now, as AI applications are becoming immersed in workplace culture and power, we’re beginning to see how GenAI tools will impact our conversational habits, which direct what we say and who we hear.

Staff at Boeing are still reluctant to speak up about safety problems, even after a door panel on one of its jets recently blew out mid-flight and hundreds of lives were lost in two earlier planes crashes, according to an experts’ report commissioned by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Have you ever considered the conversations going on in your workplace? What is said but overlooked? Who gets to talk to whom? What counts as a valuable conversation?

Working at the intersection of leadership, change, dialogue and mindfulness, Reitz’s research focuses on how we meet, see, hear, speak, learn with and encounter one another in organisational systems and how we might encourage dialogue which is more humane and which enables us, our colleagues and our society to flourish. Current focus is on the rise of ‘employee activism’.

Reitz, M. (2022). How Leaders Can Respond to Increasing Employee Activism MIT Sloan

Reitz, M., Higgins, (2022). Leading in an Age of Employee Activism MIT Sloan

Reitz, M. and Higgins, J. (2020). Speaking Truth to Power: Why Leaders Cannot Hear What They Need To Hear. British Medical Journal Leader.

Reitz, M., Waller, L., Chaskalson, M., Olivier, S. and Rupprecht, S. (2020). Developing Leaders Through Mindfulness Practice. Journal of Management Development.

Reitz, M. and Higgins, J. (2019). Do you realise how scary you are? The European Business Review

Reitz, M. and Chaskalson, M. (2020). Why Your Team Should Practice Collective Mindfulness. Harvard Business Review.

Higgins, J. and Reitz, M. (2019). If whistleblowing is the answer, find a better question. Journal of Royal Society Medicine.

Reitz, M., Higgins, J. (2018) Speaking Truth to Power. The European Business Review

Chaskalson, M., Reitz, M. (2017). The Mindful Leader: Staying Resilient, Collaborating and Thriving in Complexity. European Business Review.

Leaders often have an inflated idea of how easy it is for others to speak honestly to them. A two-year research study, including interviews with over 60 senior executives, workshops, and case studies, illuminates a glaring blind spot.

Reitz, M., Chaskalson, M. (2016). Mindfulness Works but only if you Work at it. Harvard Business Review.

Reitz, M., Chaskalson, M. (2016). How to Bring Mindfulness to your Company's Leadership. Harvard Business Review.

Reitz, M. (2016). Analyzing and communicating action research data: Practical approaches to conveying the quality and texture of experience. Action Research Journal.

Waller, L., Reitz, M. (2015). Aanleren van leiderschapsvaardigheden de neurowetenschappelijke principles. Md, 23(3), 14-19.

Williams, C., Reitz, M., Higgins, J. (2013). Is Leadership Changing? 360° The Ashridge Journal.

Reitz, M. (2009). Experiencing leadership. 360° The Ashridge Journal.