What if vulnerability is actually a symptom of psychological safety and good failure management?
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As in the animal world, the corporate ecosystem has always been showed as a world for the strongest. Survival (or competitiveness) at the cost of strength, power, and inaccessibility. The imposing figure of unwavering leaders.
It's believed that the world of work is at odds with vulnerability. More particularly with the emotional, with opening up as we are, being transparent, and lowering our defenses to be ourselves. But how true is this?
Vulnerability, in general, is not a very accepted concept. And although in the working world, it practically doesn't even exist, we wanted to explore more about this concept, its connotation, and what unexpected effects exist when vulnerability appears in the workplace.
What is vulnerability?
It's necessary to first, take a few steps back and review the meaning of vulnerability and how it's perceived in the office.
Vulnerability refers to the disadvantaged condition of an individual, community, or system in the face of a threat and the lack of resources necessary to overcome the damage. Due to its etymological roots, it's synthesized to the quality that a person has of being exposed to an injury.
However, since it is also a quality, we can say that it's also an aptitude that allows us to be open to the conditions of the world to which we are exposed, whether good or bad.
This is important because we are talking about sensitivity to the environment, others, the context of our environment, and ourselves as well. Vulnerability can then become an introspective work, deeply related to the exercise of reflection, that is, to think and question oneself.
We have been taught that we must show security at work, be imposing, and be inflexible to sustain our ideas and projects. This makes us believe that mistakes can result in our work being undervalued, and we may even lose our job. In positions of leadership, it's unthinkable to show vulnerability, since almost by default, we should lack it.
Vulnerability at work
A team without vulnerability has a high probability of failure. It would mean that there is no openness to detect errors in the work system, and therefore no opportunity for improvement. Creative processes would remain static, which would result in paralysis for innovation since without "trial and error" experimentation there is no way for new ideas to be generated.
Vulnerability in the members of the work team is also fundamental to achieving spaces of psychological security, where employees are free to express their opinions and contribute, without fear of negative consequences of any kind. This has a positive impact on the level of commitment of employees to their work and the company. According to a Gallup study, a corporate culture governed by these principles is 14% more productive.
Designing a culture of responsibility and correct management of failure means losing the fear of trying. It also encourages effective communication and constant feedback, where there is cohesion in the work team, there is structure and clarity of where they should walk together to achieve a common goal.
How to be more vulnerable?
Now, like many important organizational changes, it looks great on paper, but when it comes to the theory, that's when we run into complications.
A real problem we notice when we talk to our clients about how to improve their corporate cultures is that vulnerability seems too abstract a concept to apply on the job. And while there is no manual, we do have some notion of how we can take those first steps.
First and foremost, it's important to understand that being vulnerable in a work environment is not about crying as much as you can with your team, taking complaints to the limit, or disclosing personal problems. It is about being brave enough to communicate or take on uncertainty and daily challenges with transparency, honesty, and trust.
These are some of the best practices we always suggest to our clients to exercise vulnerability at work:
Accept your vulnerability and take risks:
Accepting vulnerability at all hierarchical levels is the only way to reexamine the old idea that organizations must work like machines, under the absurd premise that no one can make mistakes and if they do, they must be pointed out.
People must recognize work failures or identify improvements to get the job done. In this way, they participate in the generation of ideas and alternatives for the activities they perform. Not all ideas will be approved or granted, but if there are no proposals (and failures), there will be no substantial changes.
Recognize and share shame:
Belittling, playing favorites, insulting, humiliating and harassing are behaviors that indicate that shame has taken over a culture. It is much more evident when they are used to lead.
These actions spread quickly and can sabotage projects for fear of communicating doubts or deficiencies promptly, preventing transparency in the processes involved and increasing the possibility of making mistakes.
So if this happens in a workspace, we must put an immediate stop to stop these injustices. Shame prevents us from being vulnerable for fear of negative judgments, so an important step to recognize ourselves in this way is to face it.
Exercise vulnerability daily:
Vulnerability looks in different ways in small, minimal, everyday actions. Sometimes it is being honest and when we don't have all the answers, daring to say "I don't know, what do you think?". Sometimes it is accepting a mistake openly, and therefore motivating other people to do the same.
Vulnerability also appears when we share a reasonable amount of ourselves. For example, if we ask for a day off, the next day we can share that it was because our child felt bad at school, or because a pipe broke down at home. These are small details, but they show the person behind the professional.
Spaces in the work schedule to share more about ourselves, or even making feedback a recurring activity, are also ways to exercise the vulnerability muscle.
As you can see, vulnerability is as important as it is complex within a workspace. And although we have learned to fear this concept, the reality is that applied in the right doses, it is a key piece to completing a space of psychological safety, and therefore, relevant in the development of innovation and high performance.
Although it may still seem a difficult value to put into action, in our events, workshops, and Psychological Safety course, we have tried to make vulnerability something simple to apply and put into practice for any company that wants to change its corporate culture with us.
If you want to know more about our products focused on corporate culture renewal, do not hesitate to contact us by filling out this form. And we will contact you ;)
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Let's transform our perception of failure and use it as a catalyst for growth.
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