(DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)

We’ve recently seen more and more people (almost always white, straight men) jumping on the “DEI didn’t work” bandwagon, even some who are prominent in the psychological safety domain. And it’s really worrying, so we thought it might be worth clarifying a few points, or at least sharing how we see it at psychsafety.com. First of all:

• DEI did work, and still is still working. There are many organisations and businesses which are dramatically richer, safer and ultimately better performing because of the incredible work of individuals and teams who support DEI. 
• When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality can feel like oppression. A lot of people felt threatened by some DEI initiatives, and those feelings might be very real and very scary, but just because something makes us uncomfortable, doesn’t make it bad.
• Not every DEI initiative has been ‘successful’. But it’s unrealistic to expect everything we attempt to succeed. We learn, and we do better next time. To point at a few unsuccessful initiatives and claim that ‘DEI didn’t work’ is disingenuous.
• It’s easier to tear down initiatives than help build something constructive. Maybe some of these powerful voices tearing down DEI efforts would be better employed amplifying others. 

Our main thought though is that we’re deeply uncomfortable seeing the concept of psychological safety presented as “The New DEI” or “What DEI should have been”. Creating psychological safety is intrinsically connected with fostering inclusion and ensuring diversity of people and perspectives can flourish. 

It isn’t DEI “or” psychological safety. It’s both, and it has to be both in order for either to work. If we try to recruit more diverse folks into an organisation, but we don’t do any of the work to ensure our culture is also inclusive and equitable, we’ll fail to empower and retain those people. We’ll have diversity on paper, but not in reality. Psychological safety lets us build a better foundation for diversity – and by diversity, we mean not only having diverse people in the room, but hearing, listening to, and acting on, their voices. We must create environments where it’s safe to be ourselves and use our voices, whoever we are. This is both morally right, and fortunately, also good for business: only 2% of business leaders think DEI isn’t strategically important.

But there’s still a lot of work to do.

Similarly, it’s not enough to foster psychological safety for the people who are already “in the room” – we need to reflect on who is and is not in the room, and whether those voices give us the diverse insights and perspectives that we all need. This is especially true when the room in question contains seats of power and influence, and where too often the voices of minoritised folks are underrepresented. We can’t assume that simply creating psychological safety in that space will change who is there – this is where broader DEI work is so valuable. And efforts need to be long term and enduring – the saying that “you can’t be what you can’t see is” an over-simplification, but it is true that it takes time to change the makeup of teams and organisations. 

Current Events

Given events in the past few weeks in the UK, it’s especially important that we re-affirm our values and challenge the voices trying to tear DEI efforts down. We’ve seen the far-right engaging in racist riots and brutally attacking black and brown folks and their property and it’s terrifying. We’ve been afraid for people we love. If there was ever a time to get complacent and think that the work of DEI is done or over, this is not it. We need to be more focused, more committed and stronger in order to achieve our goal of making the world of work a safer, more equitable and inclusive space. 

Words have Power

And this brings us to another point. If events of the past few weeks in the UK have taught us anything, it’s that our words have power. The rioting has been incited by the words of people in positions of power and influence, who, over past weeks, months and years, have decided to use that power to spread misinformation, racism and hatred. 

We’ve said this before in previous newsletters, but psychological safety doesn’t give us absolute freedom to say whatever we want – it endows a responsibility upon us to choose our words with care, and consider their impact. 

Of course, there is no way to know with certainty the impact of something we say. Sometimes we’ll make a mistake and express something badly and then what matters is how we own it, apologise, and take steps to improve. As Maya Angelou so eloquently put it, “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”

What certainly isn’t ok is intentionally stoking discontent or hate. Words are powerful. Words create reality, and can change how we feel about the world in significant ways.  “Speech has power. Words do not fade. What starts out as a sound, ends in a deed.“
Abraham Joshua Herschel

Psychological safety works best to support DEI, not replace it. 

Back to that phrase “DEI didn’t work.” It’s very easy to say, and it sounds direct, to the point, confident. And if you say it enough, people may believe it. It’s all too easy, from a privileged position, to make sweeping statements like this to gain attention or further a cause. But our words matter, and we need to consider who might be harmed by them. 

We reject this “Psychological safety is the new DEI” angle entirely. DEI isn’t done, it matters, arguably more now than ever, and psychological safety works best to support DEI, not replace it. 

People to read and amplify on this topic:
Ruchika T. Malhotra
Lily Zheng
Lee Chambers
Liam Paschall
And many others.

Further reading

I can say whatever I want! 
Weaponisation of Psychological Safety
Yogic Philosophy (Ahimsa and Satya)
Psychological Safety, Diversity & Inclusion
Civility Saves Lives

Hand photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

We’re also excited to announce the next round of our open enrolment online workshops!

Due to the last round being massively oversubscribed, and in an effort to better serve folks in different time zones, we now have two streams to choose from, at different times of day.

Taking place in November, you can book on the whole 6-workshop psychological safety course (and save 10%), or enrol in individual workshops. Book here.

Delivering Effective Feedback

In addition to our core workshops focussed on psychological safety, we have a new complementary workshop to available to book now!

This Delivering Effective Feedback workshop on 26th September builds on the foundations of psychologically safe practice in order to use feedback effectively, and avoid causing harm.

In our work with teams, we’ve found that of all the feedback that people receive during their work life, somewhere between 70% and 80% of it is either not useful, or even harmful. Only 20%-30% of feedback is actually useful!

That’s often simply because it’s delivered poorly.

This workshop examines the purpose of feedback, the characteristics of good feedback, traps to avoid, models to use, and practices to employ. 

All attendees receive a Credly Badge, a certificate of completion to confirm attendance, further reading, materials and resources used in the session, a copy of the Psychological Safety Action Pack and a licence to use it in your organisation, access to a private alumni group, and some swag! If demand is high, we’ll schedule another session for earlier the same day, and you’ll be given the option to switch if you’d prefer the earlier time. Book here!

Psychological Safety in Practice

Social media and public shaming

In a timely post related to our article above, Jonathan Cohen writes in this excellent piece about the damage caused by publicly shaming people for mistakes (even without identifying them). Public shaming, even if unintentional, can damage psychological safety, which can stifle learning and engagement and make mistakes even more likely in the future. Social media amplifies this effect, as posts can reach a wide audience and create lasting negative impressions, even if they’re deleted.

Speaking up vs Calling out

There’s an important distinction between “speaking up” and “calling out”. This is a great table elucidating those differences, by Mays W, who gets into the difference and outcomes of each. Speaking up is powerful, constructive, and future-focussed, while calling out is past-focussed, potentially blaming, and can lead to insecurity and fear of speaking up. Thanks to Jane Cheswick for sharing this with me.

Unpacking DevOps Evolution

I love this episode of John Willis’s Profound podcast with Andrew Clay Shafer, where they reflect on the evolution of DevOps, and how it’s really a cohering of various good ideas (such as psychological safety) and practices that stem from the earliest days of bringing people together to do stuff: “The timeless way of building organisations predates any buzzword”. I worked with John and Andrew when they and I were at Red Hat, and they’re great guys. Check out Andrew’s work at https://ergonautic.ly/

This week’s poem:

Fascism: I sometimes fear… By Michael Rosen

I sometimes fear that 
people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress 
worn by grotesques and monsters 
as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis. 

Fascism arrives as your friend. 
It will restore your honour, 
make you feel proud, 
protect your house, 
give you a job, 
clean up the neighbourhood, 
remind you of how great you once were, 
clear out the venal and the corrupt, 
remove anything you feel is unlike you…

It doesn’t walk in saying, 
“Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution.”