Conflicts and psychologically unsafe behaviours can and often do happen in our workplaces. This behaviour can lead to significant discord within the workplace, possible complaints of bullying and/or harassment, and lead to higher levels of stress for the whole work team. Having a difficult conversation to address the behaviour is not something you should avoid or delay.
It’s never easy to intervene in a respectful way when we see behaviour that we consider psychologically unsafe. We may feel uncomfortable intervening, or we may believe we don’t have the authority to get involved. We might also fear the consequences of intervening, particularly if the person exhibiting the behaviour has more power or rank than we do. Or we may worry it will look like we are bullying the bully.
Here are some techniques you can use to help your teams develop critical thinking and contribute to a psychologically safer workplace:
Conflicts and psychologically unsafe behaviours can and often do happen in our workplaces. Having a difficult conversation to address the behaviour is not something you should avoid or delay.
This is a technique that can alleviate conflict and psychologically unsafe behaviour within your workplace. When meeting with the conflicted parties, you can ask questions to help both parties understand the difference between what they intended and how it was perceived, and to understand and re-examine the validity of the assumptions they made.
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