Psychological Safety and Nonprofits Can Be Best?Friends

I was a bit naive as the calendars shifted from 2020 to 2021 to 2022. The social impact sector seemed to be?finally?leading conversations about self-care and psychological safety. After all, we’re the space for “good” (aren’t we?) so this made sense.

But I miscalculated our ability to translate decades of stress, low wages, and burnout into change.?Forty-two percent?of nonprofit leaders expect imminent, increased turnover; only 13 percent have a strategy for employee retention. (I imagine you nonprofiteers reading those stats are thinking about your own organizations and shaking your heads. You’re not surprised… but you’re disappointed.)

The result? Our sector will downsize. All the program officers beloved by your partners, fundraisers who've built relationships with your trusted supporters, and the other staff who lead the charge improving the quality of life for our communities.

Bon voyage.

I’ve seen a concerning increase in the number of people joining what I call the “disemployed middle.” They’re not formally?unemployed. Instead, they’re opting not to work. Sitting on the sidelines, burning through their savings, staving off that next disastrous, toxic nonprofit experience.

This is where psychological safety and self-care need to rise. If not, the community needs will continue to dramatically increase while the great nonprofiteers who support those needs will be gone.

Psychological Safety: A Definition and Where to?Begin

Regarding work, psychological safety dates back to the 1970s, if not earlier. As a coined phrase, we can thank Harvard’s Amy Edmondson from a?1999 academic paper.?In it, Edmondson suggests psychological safety is “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”

This differs from team?cohesiveness. Edmondson suggests “cohesiveness can reduce willingness to disagree and challenge others’ views.” We all know nonprofit environments like that.

Some of you might currently?be?in environments like that.

It doesn’t have to be this way, and if our organizations are to thrive (let alone survive) we need psychological safety. We need to understand it, talk about, and live it. I suggest three ideas you can practice.

First, ask good questions.

I fully credit Erica Keswin with this one. In her book,?Rituals Roadmap, Keswin writes about workplace strategist Daisy Auger-Dominguez’s ritual of pitching three questions to a new team. I think of this approach as “3 For We” and it looks like this:

1. What do you know about?me?
2. What do you?wish?you knew about me?
3. What do you wish I knew about?you?

Notice how these questions have little to do with work? The responses can tell you who people really are, what they believe, and what they value. (More on values in a moment.) This matters because although nonprofits are?guided?by missions, visions, and values, they?are?their people.

If you do nothing else beyond?3 For We, you’ll have cracked open the door for your fellow nonprofiteers. That’s a fantastic first step towards creating safe environments.

Then, explore collective values.

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have a?workbook? accompaniment to their expert text,?The Leadership Challenge. In it, they outline 50+ values — or “principles that are intrinsically important to us” like autonomy, communication, humor, recognition, and teamwork.

They offer ways to explore individual values, team values, and the overlap between them. On the ones that overlap, they suggest creating a “team credo” to galvanize and guide collaborative work. This process acknowledges individuality and celebrates the ways people intersect over what they believe is important.

Like?3 For We above, it’s a set of exercises that bring people together, creating spaces where people amp one another up.

Finally, inspire good work through kindness.

You can't have a current conversation about psychological safety at work without discussing Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy 's courageous compendium on emotions at work,?No Hard Feelings. In it, they remind us psychological safety is steeped in kindness. Conversely, its absence can have dire consequences.?

Fosslien and West Duffy reference a study where an expert physician either berated colleagues or did nothing. They found, “The teams with a rude expert made grave mistakes: they misdiagnosed the patient, didn’t resuscitate or ventilate appropriately, and prescribed the wrong medications.” They also wrote about Google, where psychologically safe teams stayed longer in their roles, produced more revenue, and received more effective ratings. Those employees felt safe, and as a result, they excelled at work.

My broadest suggestion for well-meaning nonprofits? Treat your people well (and good) and the return will be multi-fold. There’s not really a handbook for kindness. But if you start with?3 For We?and explore collective values, you?will?know more about your teams. With that information you can be kind and lean into environments full of trust where people feel safe enough to try new things (take risks).

Last Words

Transitioning jobs in social impact is not a new phenomenon. You’ve probably done it once, twice, or 11 times. (Right?) But we’re at an important inflection moment.

Our organizations exist to meet needs not met elsewhere. That’s a bit reductive but it’s true. If we keep apace with recent trends and future outlook, we’re in for a bumpy ride. And if we want to be active participants in changing our sector, making it better, and creating spaces where employees stay (and thrive), it’s uniquely on us.

And here’s a warning especially for new and emerging nonprofits: don’t make the mistake of believing your organization is too new or too small. A nonprofit's kiss of death is believing, “We will get to this later when we…”

…have a development director

…have a larger budget

…have a better CRM

…have?that?skill on our board

This type of thinking leads to an accumulation of organizational debt, which HR leader Jessica Donahue artfully?tells us is “a lack of strategic people processes.” Punting those decisions down the road may feel like the right call in the moment, but it will put a burden on your current staff. (Did someone say?burnout?)?

If there’s one surefire way to crush the psychological safety of a team, it’s telling them you’ll solve today’s problems with a “maybe tomorrow” solution.

#nonprofit #nonprofits #SocialImpact