It can feel risky to show up whole in some organizations. Almost everyone has learned that when we expose who we really are, we open ourselves to possible mockery or to have what we shared used against us. And we usually choose to hide behind a professional mask. This safety also comes with costs: we cut ourselves from our passion, creativity and energy. So it’s important to create a safe space where everyone feels that they can safely show up in wholeness.

To do it starts with raising everybody’s awareness of the mindsets, words and actions that create or encourage a safe working environment. We should have to write a document that spells out detailed ground rules for how people interact within the organization. The document speaks of the kind of behaviors do we want to encourage and which declare unacceptable. The organization should spend significant time training everyone in their ground rules, so that the ground holds are, as much as possible, upheld by everyone, without the need of a facilitator to enforce them.

Typical ground rules include:

• Accepting emotions: many organizations generally ill at ease with “negative” emotions such as anger, sadness or frustration. When someone shares such an emotion, we are often quick to try and get the person to “get over” their emotion.
• Accepting conflict: conflict is a natural consequence of the fact that as human beings, we all have different needs and perspectives. Instead of preventing conflict(typical solution is splitting those who invoke), having a well-defined conflict resolution process should be a better choice.
• Avoiding demeaning speech and behaviors: to feel safe, we need to feel that we are accepted as equals in value. Any form of action or behavior that establishes that one person is superior to another will make us feel unsafe and trigger our ego defenses.

DISCLAIMER: the opinions expressed within the content are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of any organization.