Supporting Safe Workspaces
Running parallel to the story of human labor is the history of workplace safety; a fairly dismal tale until recently. When people work, whether gathering edible plants during the Pleistocene era or coding software in contemporary times, we expose ourselves to danger. Physical danger is the primary risk, yet we’re becoming increasingly sensitive to the psychological impact of working in stress-laden and “toxic” environments. This new sensibility widens and enriches the scientific research focus.
Physical and material threats and solutions still dominate the published literature on workplace safety. Models, theories, rating scales, taxonomies and measurement schema crowd the scene. Happily, in the past several decades, research questions about the impact of psychological safety on workers’ experiences have been increasingly conceptualized and studied. The next wave of inquiry will surely bring both dimensions of safety together-- the way they actually exist in our experience. If we fear the physical threat of an active shooter, for instance, that fear in the worker’s psyche needs to be competently managed alongside the physical risk.
I once worked for a boss who insisted everyone’s work station be plainly visible to her on her perambulations around the office. Being informed that this configuration would be disastrous in an active shooter situation, leaving people exposed and without a place to shelter, she shrugged and said, “They’ll just walk around the desk and shoot you anyway.” With that, both our physical and psychological safety became nil. People’s sense of being a valued member of the team, a contributor to the shared mission, started coming apart.
Given the long-standing efforts to measure and control physical safety risks, and the novelty of attending to psychological safety concerns as well, organizations face a complex challenge. Of course, digital safety trainings have their place, as do mission statements, but neither suffices as a demonstrable, measurable effort to create safety. Here is a gap in management and CEO training, one that coaching could successfully address by asking: What value do you place on employee safety, how can you demonstrate that, and in what ways can you measurably improve?
Psychological safety rests on an employee’s everyday work-life experience. It’s usually difficult to quantify; it’s a question of what things mean, and how things feel. The current sociopolitical attack on DEI and inclusion policies and programs is making the provision of emotional safety at work feel more tenuous—and that’s the wrong direction. In a must-watch TEDx talk, “Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe,” Simon Sinek raises the profile of psychological safety as a plank of true leadership. He calls out C-Suite executives for rewarding competitive and power-rooted behaviors. He challenges them to shift from a culture of authority to one of leadership. Leaders, he emphasizes, make their people feel safe. I am wondering if we can expand this dictum to include everyone in the organization, in the family, in the community.
What would it mean for each of us to actively support safety in the working spaces of our lives? As I think back on situations where I, as a leader, acted on the value of safety—and those where I did not—there are several core places to begin. They aren’t new, but if you try them they will seem new:
Talk Less & Listen More & Act on What You Hear.
It’s actually pretty easy to reduce the number of times you speak during the day. You’ll have to watch yourself for awhile, and then pull-back a little bit at a time. You’ll hear intriguing things from interesting people. Ask them about their sense of how to implement this-or-that suggestion, and then take a real action in response. This builds morale and makes your commitment plain. You do not have to have a power-focused job title or social role to do this! Ask someone a question today. And listen to their answer. What a marvelous way to express our humanity, and strengthen safety, too.