Introduction
Thanks for subscribing to the psychological safety newsletter! This week we focus on diversity and inclusion, tolerance and politics.
This week’s newsletter doesn’t have a sponsor – if you’re interested in sponsorship for 1-3 issues, get in touch!
Join our Psychological Safety Community on Slack! Read more here: https://www.psychsafety.co.uk/psychological-safety-slack-community/ and sign up here:
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Work and industry:
I’ve been involved in lots of discussion recently about psychological safety, the paradox of tolerance, people’s ability to speak up about political beliefs, and the impact that those beliefs can have on others if they affect them (and is there such a thing a non-political belief?). Here are my thoughts on Psychological Safety, Diversity, Inclusion, and Politics, and I’m interested to hear yours. This isn’t an easy challenge, but it’s one we must address.
And another excellent piece focussing on the same challenge, from Katherine Stitham: Courageous dialogue is a process to increase psychological safety and trust among participants in order to raise powerful questions and engage in difficult conversations… Courageous Dialogue: Transforming Moral Convictions through Conversation
Psychological safety is a foundation upon which diversity and inclusion can be fostered and increased in organisations. Good article by Katie Malone at CIO Dive: Skip the programs, focus on culture: IT leaders navigate inclusion at work.
Education:
‘Diversity should just be called reality. Your books, your TV shows, your movies, your articles, your curricula need to reflect reality.’ This is an incredible piece by Gaurav Dubay that reflects psychological safety in the classroom, particularly for minority-ethnic students.
Engaging With Diversity – Giving Pupils a Voice
Technology:
Better CyberSecurity starts with openness and honesty. Super video by cybersecurity expert Nadya Bartol
This is a fascinating debate over at Hacker News about psychological safety in tech teams. Highly recommend a read: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26860743
By Lisa Bradburn: The Necessity Of Building Psychological Safety In An Agile Environment.
Theory & practice:
“In real-world organisations, the behaviors that create psychological safety for our teams and the behaviors that bring us rewards and recognition as individuals are often fundamentally at odds with each other.”
This is a great piece by Matt Lemay – Why is Psychological Safety at Odds With the Way We Work?
Interesting piece by Stephen Grabmeier – BANI versus VUCA: a new acronym to describe the world
Tackling Psychological Safety in Hybrid models of Work, by Parthajeet Sarma
Podcast – Houston Kraft joins Marcel Schwantes on the Love In Action Podcast to discuss how kindness can improve our quality of life and shares actionable tips to help us be more kind every day.
This week’s poem:
Michael Rosen, “Once“
Once there was a boy who
wanted to be beautiful
and a girl who
wanted to be strong.
The boy was worried
that he wasn’t beautiful enough.
The girl was worried
that she wasn’t strong enough.
One day they went out to seek
their fortunes.
But there was nothing.
There was nowhere for them to go
Nothing for them to see
No one for them to meet.
There was no story for them
to be in.
They couldn’t even meet each other.
You may have thought they had already met
but they hadn’t
because there wasn’t anywhere
for them to meet.
Until you came along
and decided that you can do
something about it.
Finally:
We have a Psychological Safety Community! Read more here: https://www.psychsafety.co.uk/psychological-safety-slack-community/ and sign up here:
https://join.slack.com/t/psychsafety/shared_invite/zt-p0xlx85u-vjkgxHkrpQw4r7C0wU3tAA
As always, check out PsychSafety.co.uk, for more resources and articles.
Read previous newsletters here, and get in touch if you’d like to share something in this newsletter.
P.S.: Sponsorship
Are you interested in sponsoring one or more issues of the Psychological Safety Newsletter? Get in touch with tom@psychsafety.co.uk to discuss.
