From Fear to Speak-Up: More than 90 Safety Leaders Practice the Power of Curiosity at the 2026 National Safety Congress
Indianapolis, Indiana—What happens when more than 90 safety professionals spend an hour challenging one of the most common leadership habits in the workplace?
You get a room filled with energy, reflection and a renewed commitment to creating cultures where people feel safe speaking up.
At the 2026 National Safety Congress, Jerry Pignolet, CEO and co-founder of Feel Safe Leaders, and Nicole Piggott, founder of Synclusiv, delivered the technical session “From Fear to Speak-Up: Creating Psychologically Safe Reporting Cultures.”
The session explored a critical question facing every organization: If your workers see a safety risk, will they tell you?
The Hidden Gap Behind Every “Open Door”
The workshop opened with a simple exercise. Participants were asked to raise their hands if they had an open-door policy. Nearly every hand went up. Then they were asked to consider whether every employee, including new hires, contractors, temporary workers, and those for whom English is not a first language, would actually walk through that door to report a mistake, hazard or near miss.