Liz Fosslien, 2020

“You can’t just flip a switch when you step into the office and turn your emotions off.”

Author and illustrator Liz Fosslien made this point in a 2020 TED talk about emotions at work. She rejected both total suppression and uncontrolled disclosure, proposing selective vulnerability as a more useful approach. The quote recognizes that emotion carries information about needs, risks, and relationships. Professionalism is not emotional absence; it is the ability to notice feelings, communicate proportionately, and stay responsible for behavior. Read in context, the statement directs attention toward a mechanism that can be observed, tested, and improved. The point is to make judgment observable without reducing a complicated human system to one convenient number.

Leaders can name relevant emotion without making colleagues manage it, invite disagreement, and offer appropriate support. Teams benefit from language that separates an observation, a feeling, and a request. Managers make the idea concrete by naming an owner, an outcome, and a review point. Qualitative evidence, operational data, and direct experience should be considered together before expansion.

Vulnerability can become coercive when a senior person overshares or expects personal disclosure from others. Privacy, cultural difference, and psychological safety mean participation must remain voluntary and bounded. Responsible use also means surfacing the tradeoff that an inspiring summary can hide. This prevents the loudest advocate or most polished presentation from defining reality for everyone else.

Remote communication and organizational uncertainty can strip context from interactions. Fosslien’s guidance remains useful because emotions will influence decisions whether they are acknowledged thoughtfully or left to surface indirectly. In one difficult meeting, ask participants to state the observable concern and what support or decision they need. Leaders should model concise honesty, avoid demanding reciprocity, and review whether the conversation improved clarity. The strongest result is an organization able to learn from both the outcome and the reasoning that produced it. Scaling should follow demonstrated value and clear safeguards, with enough flexibility to pause when new evidence changes the balance. Before scaling, the owner should explain the decision in language that the people carrying the consequences can understand and challenge. The explanation should include remaining uncertainty, not only expected upside. A credible appeal path lets new evidence reach the decision quickly and turns trust into an operating property. The review should name the person authorized to pause the work when a safeguard fails. Visible stop conditions make experimentation more responsible and often make participation more confident. The responsible manager should preserve the baseline so later enthusiasm cannot quietly rewrite what the team originally expected.