The ice of being professionally ghosted

A few months ago, I started helping a client scope out a piece of behaviour-change work they wanted to do with their organisation.

There were lots of back and forth discussions about outcomes, delivery, pricing, timeframes, procurement. All pretty standard stuff.  I was asked to make one final change and, from my understanding, we were good to go.

I left it a couple of weeks and then followed up to see where things were at with the  final sign off as we had dates sorted.

And then… Nothing. Silence. Complete ghost.

Not a “things have changed.”

Not a “the budget's gone.”

Not even a “not right now.”

Just silence. And here's the thing.

I'm okay with a no. I'm okay with circumstances changing. What I'm not okay with is the silence when someone has invested their time in getting things right for the client. It takes 30 seconds to close the loop.

But it also got me thinking about something bigger.

If this is how communication gets closed externally, I'm curious about what happens internally.

Do people get the feedback they need?

Are uncomfortable conversations actually had?

Do people know where they stand?

Or are things left unsaid because saying nothing feels easier?

Because these seemingly small behaviours matter.

Over time, they become patterns.

People stop asking.

Things go unsaid.

Resentment builds.

Trust quietly erodes.

And eventually the air gets thick with that same heavy ick.

We talk a lot in our work about seeing behaviours as data and working with that. 

Sometimes the smallest behaviours tell us an enormous amount about the culture underneath them.

Anyone else experienced the professional ghost?

What did it tell you?