If you’re a leader, you probably feel responsible for the physical safety of the people who report to you. Do you also accept responsibility for creating an environment in which people feel safe enough to interact freely and share their best ideas?

Do all the members of your team feel safe enough to report problems? To have honest conversations? To embrace different points of view? To do their best work?

Are you sure?

What are the costs of

   ideas not shared?

   questions not asked?

   issues not reported?

   solutions not offered?

   problems that remain unsolved?

   conflicts that fester and go unresolved?

Many organizations don’t pay much attention to interaction safety. The default assumption is often, “I feel safe here, so I’m sure others do, too,” or that it’s each person’s responsibility to either tough it out or fend for themselves.

When interaction safety is absent, people act small. They avoid interactions with anyone they are not completely comfortable with. They don’t share their opinions. They don’t share their ideas. They don’t share information. They avoid taking the risks needed to move a conversation, an idea, or the organization forward.

Many organizations are now recognizing the need to create inclusive workplaces that leverage differences, invite all members to contribute their full range of skills and talents, and enable them to do their best work.

But ... we still see many examples of organizations in which interaction safety (and even physical safety) does not exist. There are many organizations in which bullying, verbal abuse, and harassment (verbal or physical) are tolerated.

These are easily observable manifestations of unsafe environments. However, most of the behaviors, actions, and attitudes that create unsafe interactions are far more subtle.

Many organizations have a long way to go to achieve interaction safety.

What Is Interaction Safety?

Organizations are only as productive as the interactions that take place among people. Interaction safety encourages reasonable risk taking and inspires every individual to be brave enough to reach for higher goals and more ambitious possibilities.

It is an environment that makes people feel safe enough to share not just their best ideas but also their still-in-formation ideas.

It is a safety that accelerates building the trust so vital for inclusion and collaboration in one-on-one interactions, among teams, across departments, and throughout an organization.

When interaction safety exists, people know they will not be penalized, ostracized, demoted, made small, discounted, or shunned because of their thoughts, contributions, and conversations.

When interaction safety exists, the following default assumptions are made:

   We’re all on the same team and the same side.

   All team members have the intention and the competence to add value.

   The best solutions are those that consider all angles and incorporate all relevant perspectives.

   The best route to success is building on one another’s ideas rather than tearing them down.

   We can achieve more together than we can alone.

What It Feels Like

People trust that they are among allies. They feel able to give their best efforts, and they expect the same level of effort from their colleagues.

People feel encouraged to share their ideas without feeling judged or at risk. People are willing to consider viewpoints different from their own, to update their beliefs, and to admit what they don’t know and ask for more information. People are comfortable addressing misunderstandings and disagreements.

People understand that we all have blind spots and we need to partner with others to get a complete view.

There’s a sense of freedom: freedom to engage, learn, experiment, be wrong once in a while, try new things, and venture down untrodden paths.

There’s more energy shared and less energy wasted. People invest their effort in generating, exploring, and developing new ideas rather than worrying about whether it is safe enough to share those ideas. The workplace energizes the workgroup, and the workgroup energizes its members.

What It Looks Like

People are honest and open with each other. They listen to each other respectfully and work to clarify and understand each other’s points of view, seeking to add value rather than undercut one another. The norm is “Yes, and...,” not “Yes, but...” Conflicts are addressed directly and quickly.

Information flows quickly, problems are identified before they grow into crises, and new ideas are generated by ever-changing combinations of perspectives, skill sets, and disciplines.

People with different perspectives share and integrate their points of view rather than arguing about which is correct or more valuable. They offer challenging ideas and feedback, confident that everyone is committed to achieving the best outcome. People with different skills work together to solve problems better than they could have individually.

As more ideas are shared,

   people grow

   teams grow

   organizations grow.

There is greater speed to market, efficiency in process, improvement in quality, and retention of talent.

Four Levels of Interaction Safety

Level One: On Your Own

There is no focus on interaction safety in the work-place. The organization is characterized by behaviors that range from bullying to verbal or physical harassment and abuse to less overt actions such as sarcasm, shaming, and put-downs.

   When incidents that violate interaction safety occur, the organization sees them as one-off occurrences and they are usually blamed on a “bad apple.”

   People are on their own, expected to fend for themselves, and often pitted against each other.

   People often feel judged and that they must constantly prove themselves without the benefit of the doubt.

   Individuals who report incidents may be labeled as “troublemakers” or “too sensitive.”

   There are few, if any, human resources policies that address interaction safety.

   Leaders aren’t concerned with making the work-place safe for interactions.

Level Two: Lip Service

There is some focus on interaction safety. The organization begins to recognize the importance of interaction safety, or at least the appearance of it, but does little to make interaction safety a cultural reality.

   When incidents that violate interaction safety occur, they are addressed as a human resources issue, but with no focus on the root cause.

   People experience a disconnect between the espoused values and actual behaviors of the organization and its leaders.

   People have little opportunity to learn skills for greater interaction safety.

   There may be human resources policies that address interaction safety, but they are unevenly enforced and focus more on disciplinary action than on addressing the root cause.

   Interaction safety is not directly connected to business outcomes.

Level Three: Islands of Safety

There is a great deal of focus on interaction safety. The organization is actively working to make interaction safety a cultural reality, but the practices that support it are not consistent throughout the organization. Level Three organizations recognize that it is a journey to create this new environment.

   When incidents that violate interaction safety occur, the organization addresses them swiftly and takes action regarding the root cause.

   The organization strives to provide the tools needed for interaction safety.

   Individuals feel safe enough to soar within their teams or in a specific workgroup, but not everywhere.

   While many senior leaders see interaction safety as foundational to higher performance, some worry that the change threatens the organization’s formula for success.

Level Four: Way of Life

In Level Four organizations, interaction safety is the Way of Life and understood as a critical factor for overall success. There is an organization-wide environment in which people are safe enough to soar and individuals, teams, and the organization reap the benefits of productivity, collaboration, innovation, and people doing their best work individually and collectively.

   When incidents that violate interaction safety occur, they are seen as outside the norm and as individual and organizational failures needing immediate attention.

   People feel free to bring their best selves to the workplace—to contribute, grow, and partner without reservation.

   Everyone is seen as having value to contribute.

   Efforts are focused on how to sustain and constantly improve the culture, and team members are aware that it takes vigilance and constant work to maintain and continuously improve the quality of performance and interaction safety.

   Leaders see interaction safety as connected to the work of the organization and the achievement of higher performance.

   The organization regularly assesses interaction safety for continuous improvement.

Moving to Level Four

To move from your organization’s current level to Level Four will require conscious leadership and advocacy at all levels of the organization, but no movement will happen without dissatisfaction with the current environment. Our model of change entails the following process:

Individual and Group Dissatisfaction

The process of moving from one level of interaction safety to the next begins when individuals or leaders become dissatisfied with the current environment. They see the costs to individuals and the organization of continuing down the current path without change. Individuals can’t do their best work. There is loss of key talent. The company underperforms. Employee surveys indicate a gap between the organization’s values and behaviors. There is growing turnover and an increase in incident reports. Dissatisfaction grows as people know they and the organization could do better.

The more widely held the dissatisfaction with what is or is not happening, the greater the pressure for change.

Individual and Group Risk Taking

Once individuals or leaders are willing to acknowledge there is a level of dissatisfaction, someone needs to take a risk to stand up and speak out about the lack of interaction safety and its impact on individual and organizational performance. Speaking up can be particularly risky if the organization is at Level One or Two, where interaction safety is not a part of expectations for how individuals and teams work with one another. No matter where an organization is, it takes courage for people to speak up and question the status quo.

Organization Actions

Once the issues are raised, leaders have a choice to ignore or minimize those issues or take action for greater interaction safety. Leaders need to acknowledge the dissatisfaction, establish new expectations, and implement actions to move to the next level. Without action, risk taking will be reduced and dissatisfaction increased.

The Cycle of Change

The cycle of change is iterative. When the organization has taken actions to move to the next level, at some point, there will be dissatisfaction with the new state because people’s expectations are raised, and the cycle begins again.

Even when an organization reaches Level Four, because the environmental context is always changing, the organization will need to continue to take steps to sustain and improve interaction safety.

Where Is Your Organization?

We have seen and worked with individuals and teams that run the gamut of levels. Some parts of an organization are often well behind or well ahead of others. Many would like to believe they are further ahead than they are.

Even in organizations that are mostly at Level One or Two, people have experienced settings where interaction safety enables people to contribute freely, where people are excited to come to work and do great things together every day, where there is a “we” mind-set that permeates their team.

You may think your organization is safe. But is it safe enough that people can fully bring their ideas and experiences to the workplace?

Is It Safe Enough to Soar?

The next sections describe the characteristics of the work environment at each level, illustrated with short scenarios so you can diagnose your organization, plus tips for identifying and mobilizing dissatisfaction to propel your organization to the next level.

As you read the scenarios, you might reflect on the following:

   Have you experienced, seen, or heard of a similar situation in your organization in the past year?

   How have you and others responded?

   What actions have you taken to create greater interaction safety to support the individual or situation?

On to Level One