Common conversations we avoid at work (and how to get them started)

But talking about some of the more difficult topics can really help a team’s culture thrive, and team members feel appreciated and heard. Being willing to talk openly on difficult subjects that may not sit neatly on the company agenda can make a difference to your team dynamic.

Here are three conversations some workplaces are still finding difficult, why they are so hard to have, and some voices who can help teams find a way to open up to them.

Mental health: still looked away from in too many teams
Most places of work have posters, awareness days and even employee assistance lines. But what can be lacking is a culture where a colleague can say “I’m struggling” without the fear it will be remembered at their next review.

One problem is that mental health sits somewhere between a personal and a professional issue, and many managers have not been trained or supported to deal with it. So it’s a subject that, while it’s acknowledged in policy it’s often avoided in practice.

This is where lived experience changes the feeling in a room. gail porter speaks about her own, well-documented mental health problems, and audiences respond to her because of her warmth and disarming honesty.

Gib Bulloch draws experiences from his own breakdown and recovery and talks about mental health specifically in a corporate and leadership context, which can resonate with managers who assume resilience means never struggling.

And Steve Phillip, who founded a suicide prevention mission after losing his son Jordan, helps organisations approach the most difficult version of the mental wellbeing conversation with care rather than fear.

These are wonderful speakers who can make it normal for workplaces to talk openly about mental health without stigma, and once it is normal, a better culture can follow.

Sustainability: the conversation every organisation needs to be having
Almost every business now has a sustainability statement or report. But honestly, how many have a culture where environmental responsibility plays a role in shaping day-to-day decisions?

There are a few reasons why organisations don’t talk about their environmental credentials openly and internally. It’s hard to know who owns that conversation. Is it senior management, comms, or every person in the company? And greenwashing is rife; organisations overstate their sustainability credentials but don’t live up to their claims. Employees can easily identify the gap between what is said and what is done, and that breeds cynicism.

Moving away from that to a real sustainability strategy businesses can share with their teams needs voices who can connect environmental action to something tangible. Dr Cal Major, an ocean advocate and world-record paddleboarder, talks about our relationship with the natural world in a way that reaches people emotionally and helps them feel the need for positive climate action.

Hazel Robertson and Luke Robertson, both polar explorers who have witnessed the effects of climate change first-hand, turn extreme experience into practical lessons about courage, responsibility and taking the necessary actions, no matter how difficult.

And Nick Lyth, founder of Green Angel Syndicate, uses commercial credibility to show leaders that sustainability and sound business should not compete.

These speakers help organisations move the conversation beyond the annual report and into the company culture, where it can actually do some good.

Inclusion: talked about, but awkwardly
Inclusion is maybe the best example of a conversation many organisations pretend to have seriously, but a lack of understanding means it can often miss the mark. There is energy and passion around inclusion, be it gender, sexual orientation, race or disability, but having inclusion embedded right within a company’s culture takes a lot of work.

Part of the difficulty is fear of getting it wrong. People worry about saying the clumsy thing, so they say nothing, and silence helps no one. The other part is that embedding inclusion means organisations have to look honestly at their own habits, and this is uncomfortable for us to do.

The good news is that speakers who combine lived experience with a generous and practical approach can break through these difficulties to show organisations how to change their cultures on inclusion. Viana Maya works with organisations on equity, allyship and building inclusive cultures, having moved from experiencing homelessness to leading transformation work.

Sabina Kadić-Mackenzie draws on her experience as a refugee and survivor of the Bosnian War to talk about belonging, resilience and emotional intelligence. She explains clearly the benefits of diversity within teams.

And Sam Sheppard 💡 speaks out on behalf of the third of the workforce who are introverts, exposing everyday biases that can shape who gets heard and who gets promoted.

They share the ability to make the unsayable sayable, opening up conversations to make these workplace policies real.

The thread that connects them
Mental health, sustainability and inclusion seem like separate topics, but they all have the same problem: they become superficial when nobody speaks honestly about them

The right speakers at your events or team days can bring the voices needed to change that. Someone who has lived experience gives people permission to be honest too, and this can bring about culture change in organisations.

We love to connect organisations with speakers who start the conversations that matter and give teams the tools to keep having them. Get in touch for a chat to start the conversations worth having.