The Importance of Civility at Work

A thriving workplace is a healthy environment where employees are empowered to show up as their full selves. A healthy workplace is a psychological safe setting. Having psychological safety at work means that employees understand and feel that they are safe to speak up, be open, and give honest feedback to their colleagues and managers without fear of retribution.

A recent article in the Harvard Business Journal explains: “Ancient evolutionary adaptations explain why psychological safety is both fragile and vital to success in uncertain, interdependent environments. The brain processes a provocation by a boss, competitive coworker, or dismissive subordinate as a life-or-death threat. The amygdala, the alarm bell in the brain, ignites the fight-or-flight response, hijacking higher brain centers. This ‘act first, think later’ brain structure shuts down perspective and analytical reasoning… While that fight-or-flight reaction may save us in life-or-death situations, it handicaps the strategic thinking needed in today’s workplace.”

When our fight-or-flight response is activated, we cannot think clearly or communicate well. When that happens to individuals at work, they are not in emotional states to manage conflict effectively, offer innovative ideas, or handle complex situations with nuanced decisions and actions.

The Dangers of Incivility

Behavioral scientist Christine Porath has been studying psychological safety for a long time. She was recently featured on the Hidden Brain podcast and spoke about how when employees witness and are subjected to incivility at work, harmony, productivity and creativity suffer: “Incivility is a bug and we become carriers of it just by being around it,” she says in a TED Talk. “It affects our emotions, our motivation, our performance and how we treat others. It even affects our attention and can take some of our brainpower. And this happens not only if we experience incivility or we witness it. It can happen even if we just see or read rude words.”

Porath explains that when consumers witness managers being rude to their employees, they show less loyalty to that brand. Consumers unconsciously associate that store or business with toxicity. Furthermore, when workers, such as nurses and airline representatives, are subjected to rudeness, they perform poorly because they are in states of trauma/flight-or-flight.

Porath adds: “Researchers in Israel have actually shown that medical teams exposed to rudeness perform worse not only in all their diagnostics, but in all the procedures they did. This was mainly because the teams exposed to rudeness didn’t share information as readily, and they stopped seeking help from their teammates. And I see this not only in medicine but in all industries.”

Witnessing and experiencing incivility at work is experiencing a form of workplace toxicity. Employees who witness and experience this won’t stay long at this job and other bottom lines will suffer because employees won’t be able to think creatively. Their memory function is also affected, explains Porath.

So how do we change this?

Workplaces must value creating psychologically safe environments.

While the answer may be simple, the practice of creating psychological safety at work takes courage from employers and employees. The root of the word ‘courage’ (‘cur’) means heart. At Adaptiva, we like to understand that the heart refers to having empathy and compassion as well as holding faith that things can be better. There is also strength and bravery in making this commitment.

While there are many paths to fostering civility, and creating psychologically safe places to work, here are a few guidelines for moving in that direction. They apply to everyone, and need high visibility from managers and other leaders:

1. Show your own vulnerability! We are all human and managers make mistakes too. Own your mistakes. Create a culture where managers are just as comfortable asking for help as employees are. Could you share a disappointment with your team and share what you learned from it? This will set the tone for employees to feel safe enough to share too.
2. Include everyone in team decisions. Ask your team for input, thought, and feedback on both business and administrative tasks. By including your team in the decision-making process, they will feel that their input matters and they will benefit from transparency. Managers can also send an anonymous survey every month as a workplace temperature check.
3. Encourage a culture of awareness. People bring their whole selves to work and it is important that everyone can feel seen. Ask your team to share how they work best and what they need to feel recognized. It can be helpful for team members to fill out a behavioral assessment to build self-awareness.
4. Say no to negativity. Incivility thrives in negative atmospheres. When there is disrespect and negativity among team members, everything suffers. While it’s necessary to share feedback with your team members and suggest positive ways they can improve, focusing only on mistakes or problems damages one’s sense of psychological safety. Be sure to also offer positive feedback when giving constructive feedback as well, as it’s human nature to focus on the negative. Healthy disagreements and conflict will happen among co-workers, but when it occurs in a safe environment, incivility will be kept at bay.
5. Have fun! While forced fun can be awkward, try to build in time for pleasure with your team. Even a team lunch or a group walk or a spirit day where everyone wears a silly costume (80s day perhaps?), can foster connection. Creating positive experiences and connections builds safety. Perhaps at your next meeting you could have an ice-breaker (food questions are always a good start) or even a guided group meditation.

When there is psychological safety at work, creativity can blossom and the mental health of your team will improve as well. Employees who are in environments that allow them to be vulnerable and supported will do better work. At Adaptiva HR, we encourage you to make psychological safety a priority at your workplace. If you’d like more personalized support about this, reach out. Having psychological safety at work should be the norm, not the exception.