No One is Safe Until We Are All Safe?

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What It’s About: This past weekend, I was listening to a number of public health and infectious disease experts talk about the current pandemic and all its latest variants. The facts seem to be that none of us are really safe, until we are ALL safe. So many people want to believe that if they can get vaccinated, they are in the clear. Well, to some extent, that’s true. However, what good is to be free from being infected by the virus if most around you aren’t? Will ever expanding aggressive mutations render early vaccinations as insufficient? No one really knows. Until we are ALL safe, no one is really safe from the vagaries of this situation.

So What?: I think this relates (with less serious consequences, of course), to the issue of psychological safety and our teammates today. What good is it to have part of the team feel safe to bring their best, if others on the team are not? Sure, those who feel fully engaged can be all in. Yet those uncomfortable and literally fearful, work under conditions where applied behaviors of others, whether intentional or unintentional, diminish and minimize contribution. It’s hard to feel psychologically safe if we ALL do not feel that way. We run the risk of being infected by withdrawal, complacency and incompleteness.

Now What?: The only real path to greatness is to create conditions where people can bring their best. If not, we only become sub-optimized. When everyone is ALL IN, we create a greater sense of belonging, learning, contribution and the liberty to challenge constructively. This takes relentless work, and the metaphorical vaccinations relative to people discussing the right, hard things at the right time, asking for and offering help, authentically showing up and being accepted, while having mistakes fully embraced as learning moments. These are the minimal conditions.

As a leader and teammate, think of yourself as a psychological virologist. No one is safe, unless we ALL feel safe.

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now.

Lorne

One Millennial View: We’re never ALL safe from any one thing, and I’d argue that we shouldn’t even want to be. It’s not realistic. Driving, flying, walking, jogging, chewing… Heck, more than 420,000 people die per year from slipping in the shower/falling down stairs, and other household accidents. Sometimes, we have to, and want to live dangerously. Our world is not safe. That said, work can be a different story. Leadership teams that promote psychological safety have the potential to increase better conditions for team members to be ALL IN, and feel much more secure. Make work safer than your shower.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis.

No One is Safe Until We Are All Safe?

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