Circle of Safety
After almost a decade working on IT it’s heavy to see how the companies are struggling to maintain their employees.
What’s happening?
The world around us is filled with danger. As professionals we are competitive like we never were and the competition between companies is bigger than ever before. We are naturally competitive its hundreds of years of evolution and our competitors, even if they are not trying to put us out of business, even if they aren’t trying to kill us, are still trying to frustrate our success or steal our customers.
So keep fighting!!
But this high performance comes with a price. Our daily battle to be better often failed brings bitterness, frustration and isolation. Our boss running for stakeholders happiness forgets about us most of the time.
I have seen this too much unfortunately and I think I have an answer! I believe we can fight against those facts and turn some of these threats into a success. To begin we should move from “me” to “we”.
“A Lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many times he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they fell a-quarrelling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then the lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four. “
- Aesop, six century B.C
Like the Oxen we are stronger together. The wise old saying:
“If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together”
Ya, I’m talking about teams.
I truly believe that we can fight this crazy world with a simple answer. Turning our teams into a Circle of Safety.
“Intimidation, humiliation, isolation, feeling dumb, feeling useless and rejection are all stresses we try to avoid inside the organisation. But danger inside is controllable and it should be the goal of leadership to set a culture free of danger from each other. And the way to do that is by giving people a sense of belonging. By offering them a strong culture based on a clear set of human values and beliefs. By giving them trust and empathy. By creating a Circle of Safety.”
- Simon Sinek at Leaders eat last.
Simon explains: “Only when we feel we are in a Circle of Safety will we pull together as an unified team, better able to survive and thrive regardless of the conditions outside.”
Like a Marine boot camp it’s not just about running, jumping, shooting. Like the skills we have in our résume, those we proudly show as part of the job description. But they are not what make Marines so effective. Those things are not what make high-performance groups perform so remarkably. The ability of a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people pull as a team.
As a team member we must have a sense of belongingness, dialogue, exchange, proximity and collaboration. We must feel safe and protected from outside threats.
We should start in the recruitment process, bringing the best but never forgetting to share values.
There is who says:
“Letting someone into an organisation is like adopting a child”
And as a child, we should be active in team education, grow with each one, celebrate every win and every lost. In the end we must have everyone inside our Circle of Safety.
