INCLUSION AND WELLBEING – START AT THE TOP!

Most organisations appreciate the benefits of building an inclusive, wellbeing culture for all staff. But I’ve seen over and over again how their efforts (and money) are wasted by starting in the wrong place.

Typically, a senior leader or HR director will think, “We could really do with some Resilience / Mental Health First Aid / EDI training.” They bring in a provider to do some staff development sessions, usually focussed on staff from middle management and down the chain of command. The sessions go well; people are enthusiastic for change and want to try out new ideas. But then they start hitting barriers: “we haven’t got time for that”, “we haven’t got the  budget”, “that’s not how we do things here”. The advocates get demoralised and cynical about the possibility of change and you end up with a workplace that is less healthy and inclusive.

 Real cultural change cannot be brought about by raising awareness at the individual level alone. This work is important, but it can be counter-productive unless it is accompanied by changes in the structures, practices and power-dynamics of the whole organisation.

THIS IS WHY INCLUSION AND WELLBEING CHANGE HAS TO START AT THE TOP!

 If the CEO, Directors, Senior Leadership Team, etc. are on board, have consulted staff on what changes are needed, agreed new structures and practices, allocated budgets and resources, and begun to put them into action, role modelling new attitudes and behaviours, THEN the staff training and awareness-raising will work. People will leave development sessions and ‘hit the ground running’. Their energy and enthusiasm will be welcomed and encouraged rather than blocked. Their ideas will drive innovation and ensure that the change is written into the DNA of the organisation. This is how cultural change happens.

I’ll give you an example of the opposite from my very recent experience. I was commissioned to develop some training for an organisation, as part of its Inclusive Culture Programme. It began well, with a session for the Board, which responded very positively to my proposals. The Board, of course, has little day-to-day influence on the running of the organisation, but as the ‘overseer’, I think their buy-in helps signal permission and commitment to the project. Usually, I would then work with the senior leadership team to create the ground for change, but this was not possible and I had to begin working directly with staff at front-line and middle management level. The sessions were brilliant – great engagement with my active and drama-based approaches, real openness in discussion and interest in my approach, which is based on the need to create a workplace where people feel:

• VALUED
• TRUSTED
• AUTHENTIC
• PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE

(from Catalyst’s report, ‘Getting Real About Inclusive Leadership, Why Change Starts With You’.)

We worked on practical Inclusion Nudges that can reinforce this culture and people left, ready to try them out.

Then I got to work with the Senior Leadership Team and was shocked at what I found. The session was the opposite of the openness and engagement of the staff sessions. It wasn’t that they were hostile, it felt like they were scared! After every question or discussion point I posed, there was silence as people looked around to see who would answer first, a real reticence to put themselves ‘on the line’. I was left thinking that if there was such a lack of TRUST and PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY at the top, what chance did the staff have of putting any inclusion ideas into practice? If I had been able to begin with this session, work with senior leaders to unpack the reasons for their fear and coach them in reducing it, I could have prepared the ground for unleashing the energy of staff and the potential for genuine organisational change.

 I am hopeful that I will be able to go back and do some more work to address these problems, but it’s wasted precious time, money and energy and made progress harder by starting in the wrong place.

It’s similar with staff wellbeing and mental health programmes, which tend to individualise learning, making staff responsible for looking after themselves. Mental Health First Aid courses put the onus on people who may be struggling to seek out and ask for help from a First Aider, who has had a couple of days training, is trying to do their own job and may have little confidence in actually talking to people with mental health problems. Resilience training often focusses on how individuals can strengthen themselves, without doing anything to change the structures, workload and leadership attitudes that are causing their overwhelm in the first pace. Again, if an organisation is serious about creating a wellbeing culture, it must start at the top, with the people who have the power to change the causes of workplace ill health.

If you connect with any of the issues I’ve raised, have a look at my Coaching Inclusion and Mental Wellbeing programmes, or just contact me for a chat.

https://www.activelearningteam.com/coaching-for-inclusion

https://www.activelearningteam.com/mental-wellbeing