That silence hit me hard when I took over a team last year. Our standups went from 15 minutes of real talk to 5 minutes of "fine, nothing, done." I asked "any blockers?" and got one-word answers. Pushed too hard and someone called me out for making them feel judged, which crushed me. What worked was stopping the group pressure and switching to 1:1 check-ins where I did most of the talking, just asking "what's working, what's hard, what do you need." Nobody felt put on the spot. I read this really inspiring story at Richard W Warke about a leader who rebuilt trust by creating psychological safety instead of forcing participation. Started sharing my own mistakes first and admitting when I didn't have answers. Slowly people opened up because they saw it was safe. The breakthrough came when I stopped asking "any ideas?" and started asking "what would make this easier for you." Openness is earned by showing vulnerability first, not demanding it from others. Within a month the standups felt human again.