Hi, Jane - another excellent post, full of interesting observations and a bit of challenge:)

My nomination for Best Understatement:  "For most of us, being in situations where we are isolated, don’t fit in, or face reprisals isn’t much fun."

I am familiar with Asch's experiment and have seen evidence to support this throughout my work life.  The "Smoke-Filled Room" study, in which a room slowly filled with smoke, produced similar results:  With some people planted in the room to ignore the slowly gathering smoke, those not in on the experiment were confused and hesitated, as that smoke continued to get thicker.  Here's a link to a YouTube video that shows how powerful the inaction of others can be on our own behavior and decisions:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE5YwN4NW5o.

Interestingly, as the number of people in the room grows, so does the effect of "bystander apathy".  This study also contributes to our understanding of why people often observe, but do not act to help others.  The bigger the crowd of witnesses, the less likely most are to act.   Not a great commentary on our shared humanity.

I was not aware of the "spiral of silence" specifically, but I am now - thanks:)

About your question, I once experienced this on a corporate scale, where leadership was poor and counterproductive, but senior management team folks (including me) remained silent for the most part.  Over a number of years, this contributed to several things:

1)  The leader continued to feel empowered and supported by our silence.  As someone has probably said, "Silence is Assent".

2)  The culture became one where the poor decisions and behaviors of the leader were accepted as either "normal" or "personality quirks" (ignoring the very real effects on our productivity and even viability.

3)  When confrontation did occur, it was usually in emotional response to some specific event.  The emotion drove behavior, which did not result in effective communication or relation, while the resulting "discussion" would focus on nitpicking or rationalizing the specific event, while the overall direction remained unchanged.

The result:  A bankruptcy which changed our company from one with a proud 100-plus year history, over 100 facilities and programs nationwide, and over 3, 000 employees to one with 5 facilities and 300 employees in three states.

Not particularly enjoying this trip down Memory Lane, but I take it as often as I need to remind myself that speaking out is better than keeping it in.

I deeply appreciate your post reinforcing that leadership is about speaking the truth, even when risk accompanies that truth.

John