If you
believe that we need great new ideas to solve the major problems in our society
and grow as a species and as individuals, then I propose that feeling
Psychologically Safe at work, and having trust in our Public Systems and
Institutions, is vital. We may be able
to survive without safety and trust, but we will never thrive without them.
Why is
trust important? Especially public
trust? When you trust a person or a
system, you get to turn off your internal “virus scanner”. When we can turn that off, we can use that
freed up mental energy for better things.
We need to be able to turn off our internal virus scanner because some
of the things that we’re going to need to do to move forward as a species will
require 100% of our brains in a complete flow state as often as possible.
This is why
Psychological Safety is the single most important factor in a workplace and, as
I’m coming to see, in virtually any other type of relationship. Trust and psychological safety are central and
vital because some things in our lives require “100% of our brains” to solve,
so to speak. Which means our full focus and attention in a relaxed state. Anytime that we feel unsafe it means that
some of our brain and body power is devoted to looking for threats and watching
our back.
While this
is good for survival, it means that we are a lot less creative and productive
mentally, and it leaves us feeling drained and exhausted and unpleasant at the
end of the day. So really it attacks both the experience and the point of being
at work. When we have safety, and we
feel like we can let our guard down, we can then activate the “Broaden and Build”
mental system, which means solving problems in creative ways that help more
people with fewer drawbacks or sometimes even no drawbacks if the idea is
particularly elegant. (Think of the
great ideas you have when you’re relaxing in the shower. That’s the Broaden and Build system at work. Quick, write those ideas down!)
But this
system isn’t activated until I feel completely safe. If I even have to
devote one percent of my energy to watching my back or watching what I say for
any reason, it shuts down that system. Are you like this as well?
It’s like a
sewage analogy I heard recently:
If you add
1 teaspoon of soup into a bucket of sewage, what do you call it? Sewage.
If you add
1 teaspoon of sewage into a bucket of soup, what do you call it? Sewage.
And you
don’t eat it. You reject it. Safety and trust are like that.
Perhaps
this is why the Public Trust is so important and so fragile as well. You can’t
treat trust and mistrust like a ratio with an acceptable limit. It’s all or
nothing. Either you feel safe, or you do
not feel safe. And the results are also all or nothing. Either you lower your
guard and relax and all the wonderful gifts you have come flowing out, or
you’re watching your back and watching what you say and second-guessing
everything you do before and after you do it, and the Broaden and Build system
is completely deactivated.
It is
sometimes useful to measure the intensity of a fight or flight or anxiety
reaction. (In a toxic work environment one might feel “95% unsafe and anxious”).
There is great value in finding ways to calm down these anxieties. If I can bring my anxiety from 95% down to
40% that represents a great deal of relief for me. But relief from pain and attainment
of pleasure are two different things.
Avoiding harm and attaining growth are two different things. Reduction in anxiety and feeling safe are
related, but not exactly the same thing.
The Broaden
and Build system is necessary if we are going to solve the major problems of
our society and our own personal lives and have the best relationships we
possibly can. We need the Broaden and Build system activated more often as a
society so that we can solve the problems of life and experience the purpose of
life, (certainly one of the purposes!)
To connect and experience pleasure and excitement and a have feeling of
growth and progress.
Fight or
flight helps us survive in hostile environments. Broaden and Build helps us create
environments with less hostility. And they feel good and they’re fun and they
make you look forward to getting up in the morning, which I think might be
another point of life.
Since
Broaden and Build is vital for growth, it’s important to know that a little bit
of distrust or non-safety is enough to completely shut down that system. The
door to that world of ideas and solutions just blinks out of existence in an
instant. Like blowing out a candle. Can you relate?
If I’m in a
staff meeting and I feel very safe, lots of great ideas will likely start
coming out, ideas that perhaps no one else had thought of. If we’re stuck on a problem, this is just
what we need.
Then I go
“too far” and end up saying something really “out there” or wildly
inappropriate (usually as I seize an opportunity to make a joke, an
irresistible urge sometimes!). People
shoot me looks. Strange looks, concerned
looks, annoyed looks, and that’s it! The
safety disappears, The flow of ideas gets cut off, and I immediately start
backpedaling. Stammering out an apology
or rapidly changing the subject, all the while feeling shame. And honestly,
that is usually the last time that I’m able to come up with ideas for that
group, or, if I do come up with great ideas, I keep quiet about them.
A teaspoon
of sewage turns any amount of soup into sewage.
Another (less
yucky) metaphor for feeling unsafe is that of a poorly designed virus scanner. One
that takes up too much of the computer’s resources to look for threats. You’ve all used them. We won’t name names, but we all know which
ones we’re talking about here. J
Virtually
everyone who has worked with computers, especially older or less expensive
computers, has experienced a slowdown of their whole system once a virus
scanner was either installed or upgraded. More than once in my life I was
looking for an antivirus program for an older computer, and I found that
commercial antiviruses slowed that computer to a crawl. (Think clicking an app and then going to make
a coffee because you know you have time before the computer responds. Might as well make some toast too!)
The virus
scanner was so concerned with looking for threats that it ended up destroying
the very thing that it was there to protect; my productivity and my easy use of
the computer. Because complete online safety is still impossible (lots of
malware out there), I would look for the most basic, lean version of a virus
scanner and combine with wise browsing and email habits. In the case of our
computers, the best that we can do is to minimize the impact of the virus
scanner. And maybe this is why we accept
a margin of unsafety and mistrust in our workplaces and public institutions and
officials.
And this is
my point about trusting our systems. If we could trust that our doctors weren’t
trying to push pills on us, we would see them for more preventative care. But
there’s no money in prevention. If we could trust that 100% of our tax money
was being used for great things and to markedly ease the suffering of people
and advance our country, we would more happily pay taxes, instead of
disgustedly. However, we have no idea if
the money is being used for good, or if we’re helping the friend of a
politician land a contract and buy a 3rd yacht.
Imagine how
much time, energy and stress could be freed up if computer malware ceased to
exist. The computing power saved alone
could be significant. Think of how much more
productive and happier you are when you feel safe. Better performance with less cost, mentally
and emotionally.
The
benefits of trust and safety are enormous. Anything less than complete trust
leaves us fighting each other in survival mode. It’s very easy to lose trust,
as an individual or an organization, and there is no “losing it just a little
bit“. You either got it or you don’t. And if you don’t got it, you should work
hard to try to get it back. Because without trust, nothing great is possible. With trust…completely relaxing and letting the
ideas flow, what could be possible?
Maybe I’ll
have a nice long shower and think about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment