Speaking up can be quite a risk, from the corporate world to a personal situation. If you speak up at work, depending on the culture of your organization, it can be a career changer - sometimes career suicide. If we speak up in a personal situation we may lose a friendship or more. People sometimes forget that doing nothing is also a risk. If we don't speak up, it could possibly be more detrimental than saying what is on our mind.
A young professional was getting frustrated with individuals from another department that were supposed to be showing up to meetings and were late or completely absent. In the meetings, summer students were making presentations on their summer projects. They spent countless hours preparing for the event as their future opportunities at the company might be affected by this performance. The individuals that were late or missing from the meetings were supposed to evaluate these students. Their behavior was so disrespectful and unprofessional. The frustrated individual wrote a note to higher ups detailing the problem and requested a change in their behavior. It was so wonderful to hear about him standing up to what was wrong within his organization.
So many people stand by and tolerate bad behavior by saying or doing nothing. I salute those warriors who are up to the challenge of making things happen for the better of all.
Be the one to get it done!