How to Facilitate Workplace Inclusivity with “Safe Rooms”

The following is adapted from You Can Be Yourself Here by DDS.

Whatever your political persuasion, an inescapable reality is that the number of hate crimes against marginalized communities has increased since the latter half of the 2010s. Fortunately, the advent of social media, 24-hour news networks, and the proliferation of smartphones has shined a nefarious spotlight on these atrocities.

In particular, the murder of George Floyd became a nexus point. It has caused society, as well as organizations, to listen in a way they previously hadn’t.

As the founder of an executive coaching company called Soul Trained, my job is to help leaders, executives, and employees to get out of the weeds of their comfort zones and into places they didn’t know they needed to go. As such, I encourage leaders to create a sense of belonging for everyone. This requires inclusivity regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and other wonderfully unique aspects of our humanity.

One of the best ways to promote inclusivity and ultimately, belonging, is to facilitate something called a “safe room.” By taking this step, organizations will begin to realize rewards previously unattained in eras of ignorance and intolerance.

What is a Safe Room?

A safe room is where the delicate (and oftentimes messy) conversations that are necessary for processing complex trauma and the harm inflicted by systemic oppression and day-to-day microaggressions can take place.

What does such a thing look like in practice and how does one go about creating it? Simply declaring a space as “safe” and explaining to folks in the room a requirement for them to consciously, willfully, and intentionally bring qualities such as courage, vulnerability, patience, and empathy can be enough.

With that said, an additional step of co-creating some rules for the room can encourage commitment and ensure that the way is paved for the types of behavior that will facilitate the types of conversations that lead to the desired impacts.

The Rules

There is a myriad of beautiful ways to run a safe room activity, but the simplest method I employ goes like this:

• Briefly introduce the topic of psychological safety.
• Invite each member of the group to write down qualities they would like to be both present in and missing from the room to enable the experience of psychological safety.
• Ask each person to read out one of their qualities in turn while they are written on a (virtual or physical) flip chart.
• Keep working through the group one by one until each unique quality has been shared, and facilitate a conversation around any questions.
• Finally, ask the group by show of hands if they are (a) able to bring each of the qualities into the room and (b) willing to bring each of the qualities into the room.
• As a final touch, if the group is in the same physical space as each other, I will invite each person to place their signature on the flip chart where I have recorded the qualities. I find that this tends to “seal the deal” in terms of commitment to the safe room.

Safe rooms are not necessarily a new concept, but I have seen them emerge in professional spaces in 2020 in response to the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery as a way for their Black employees to process and share their thoughts and fears and to be heard in ways they usually don’t get to be heard in the professional environment.

The Ongoing Process of Belonging

Safe rooms are part of an ongoing process of unlearning and relearning how to be a human. First, to become aware of the social conditioning you’ve been subjected to, and then to learn to dismantle your own internalized racism, heterosexism, sexism, ableism, colorism, and whatever our societal conditions have taught is good versus bad, right versus wrong. Unlearning that is our job.

When we all make this learning and unlearning our jobs, workplaces become enlivening places where people perform at their best. What’s more, they want to be there, because when you belong somewhere, you look forward to being there. That place of belonging is so compelling for us. When we find somewhere we belong, we will keep going back.

For more advice on facilitating safe rooms in the workplace, you can find You Can Be Yourself Here on Amazon.

DDS has spent the last twenty-five years introducing individuals, teams, and organizations to the fundamental joys and benefits of belonging. The founder of the executive coaching consultancy Soul Trained, they were a registered neuro-linguistic psychotherapist before moving to the US. They are certified as an Executive Coach by the Oxford School of Coaching & Mentoring. Before founding Soul Trained, DDS held a range of senior, executive, and C-suite roles across a host of sectors and companies, including Marks & Spencer Plc; Eurostar International; Crossrail Ltd (building a new railway through London); Sony Music Entertainment; and Essence Global, part of the world’s largest advertising company, WPP.