Building Trauma Informed Workplaces — Humility & Responsiveness
Most people don’t intend to harm others; yet harm continues to happen. It is a fact of life that our intentions do not always match our impact. When this happens, it is important to move forward in a way that acknowledges and seeks to rectify harm. This is key to creating trauma informed cultures.
The principle we’ll discuss in this article, Humility and Responsiveness tackles how both individuals and organizations can move forward in a trauma informed way after missteps, mistakes, challenges, and harm that may have been caused.
This is part seven of the series on building Trauma Informed workplaces; if you haven’t read the introductory article, you can read it here.
As we build trauma informed workplace cultures, we are focusing on seven foundational principles based on work from SAMSHA on trauma informed care. These principles help organizations build workplace cultures where everyone can be successful, regardless of whether they have experienced trauma.
The principles are as follows: Safety, Trust & Transparency, Community, Collaboration, Empowerment, Humility & Responsiveness, and Cultural, Historical, & Gender issues.
The adage, “Hurt people, hurt people,” comes to mind as we dive into this week’s topic. We’ve explored in earlier articles, traumatic experiences are common, and the effects of trauma can appear in sometimes unexpected ways, including in ways that may harm others.
Organizations and individuals may cause harm for a variety of reasons- all do at some point, again even with the best of intentions. Prior trauma is not an excuse to harm- but it is worth considering that unaddressed trauma or environments that are not trauma informed can exacerbate issues of unintentional harm.
Since we are focused on creating both processes and cultures that are trauma informed, it is important an avenue exists that acknowledges the likeliness of missteps and for moving past them in a productive, trauma informed way to ensure the ongoing growth and success of the team.
Humility is a value that is key in this scenario. Organizational leaders must show humility and infuse it into the organizations culture.
Humility is a word that gets thrown around quite a bit, so it is one we want to define and ensure we are working from a shared definition.
At a basic level, humility relates to the degree to which we value and promote our interests above others. In J. P. Tangney’s Handbook of Positive Psychology, six intrapersonal aspects of humility are also identified that are helpful to our discussion. They are:
- A willingness to see ourselves truthfully
- An accurate perception of our place in the world
- An ability to acknowledge our mistakes and limitations
- Openness
- Low self-focus
- An appreciation of the value of all things.
Without humility, it is very difficult for individuals and organizations to acknowledge their errors, missteps, or different perspectives that showcase potential harm. The openness and appreciation for others ingrained in our definition is key in the recognition of harm and missteps.
Humility alone is not enough. Without meaningful action and acknowledgement to correct harm, the issue remains and often festers- getting worse and creating new issues often impacting even more people. Responsiveness works hand in hand with humility to complete this trauma informed principle.
In citing responsiveness, we acknowledge that action is required to ensure a trauma informed approach. In organizations, when harm or other issues arise, a response — and an expedient one, is vital. In each scenario, the appropriate response will vary, but we’ll explore key overarching components to ensure it is clear how this principle appears in action.
Listening & Openness to Feedback
To respond, first, we must be open to feedback and listen to a diverse array of voices within our organization and the communities we serve. Again, this is why having a core value of humility within your organization is a significant help — this should feel more natural if you and your team are use to making it a practice in your day-to-day.
A reminder, positional power and differences in style may make it harder for individuals to offer unsolicited feedback, especially if that feedback is a critique. Given these realities, to effectively listen, deliberate channels for soliciting and responding to feedback will make it easier to quickly recognize and rectify harm.
Feedback will also not always be verbal. Pay attention to shifts in behaviors and interactions as additional clues that something may be wrong.
Once you find an issue that needs to be addressed, create space and time to fully listen and understand the issue and any potential harm at hand. This is not the time to respond. This is the time to engage in deep listening in an attempt to better understand all concerns and harm. Being heard, for many, is a key part of having harm addressed. Do not rush through the listening process or you may create additional issues.
Acknowledgment
Once you are aware of the harm. It is important to acknowledge the issue and do so swiftly. Perhaps more time is needed to come to a solution- that’s okay. The key here is acknowledging harm was done, taking accountability as needed and being transparent as it relates to next steps. Don’t delay acknowledgment, it is an important component of being heard and seen.
Apology
Apology for harm, whether intentional or not, is an important step in responsiveness. Apologies may not always be warranted, but often they are, and they must be delivered carefully to achieve the desired effect. We’ve all been on the receiving end of an empty apology, and they offer little to no meaning (sometimes they create more harm).
There is a lot of wonderful content on apologies and the components of a good apology. For our purposes, we will keep it simple. Your apology needs to be sincere, and you need to have your motive in mind- ideally, acknowledging and correcting harm or repairing your relationship. When you aren’t apologizing for the right reasons, it often can be seen as insincere. Your apology should also be clear on what you are apologizing for, acknowledge the harm caused and note any next steps or meaningful actions.
If you want to dive more into how to offer a meaningful apology, here are some great resources -
What a Real Apology Requires (hbr.org)
How to say sorry and give a good apology (according to researchers)
Meaningful Action
Following apology is the meaningful action- this may be a follow-up to correct the harm done actively or it may be steps to ensure harm is not created in the future. It is important if you promise action, you take it or you risk significant issues as it relates to trust.
A Word on Forgiveness & Moving Forward
Forgiveness is often an expectation following an apology or a recognition of harm being done. Forgiveness is wonderful and very powerful but be cautious in expectations of forgiveness following a harmful action.
Forgiveness is not owed, and each person will respond to issues differently. Focus on what you can control, your actions moving forward and looking to repair the relationship.
Sometimes the relationship cannot be repaired; nevertheless, responsiveness is still important to show commitment to minimizing harm to all others in your organization and learning to create a more inclusive organization.
Institutional Betrayal
As we discuss humility and responsiveness, it’s important we at least briefly discuss institutional betrayal. Institutional betrayal is when an organization or institution you trust and depend on mistreats you or causes you harm.
When traumatic experiences occur in or as a direct result of the workplace, feelings of institutional betrayal can be significant and beyond just that of the traumatic experience, but also around a breaking of trust.
To illustrate institutional betrayal, psychologist Anne DePrince, offers the example of a child who has been abused by a parent. There may be physical injuries, such as bruises, from the abuse itself — but on top of that, there will likely be a second, psychological injury from the fact that the child was harmed by someone who they look to for support and protection.
Betrayal of trust can be difficult to recover from and the relationship may permanently suffer. Scenarios of institutional betrayal can take a dedicated, high-performing and engaged team member to one completely at odds with the organization. Preventing harm in the first place is paramount to avoiding institutional betrayal and is a core goal of a trauma informed workplace.
Imperfection is unavoidable, in trauma informed cultures, the key is to recognize this with humility and respond in a meaningful way — both to repair potential harm and to help the organization learn and grow more inclusively.
Next week, we will be discussing the final principle of trauma informed workplaces, Cultural, Historical, and Gender Issues. Make sure to hit follow so you don’t miss it or the other articles.
