How The Way We Think Can Help Create Healthier Workplaces
Feeling stuck in a toxic workplace? Learn how shifting your mindset can be the key to creating a healthier work environment for yourself and others.
“Workplaces are getting worse and I believe nothing is done about it,” said a writer’s friend during a conversation about workplace pressure a few weeks ago.
All in me rebelled: “There is so much going on. Lots of organisational behaviour research has been done to find solutions to make work a better place.”
I was thinking of Amy Edmondson championing Psychological Safety1, Organisational Psychologist Ludmilla Praslova, who has written extensively about Neurodiversity, Organisational Psychologist and author of ‘Leading Inclusion’ Gena Cox, and many other experts I am aware of and follow.
My friend insisted: “That may be true. However, the reality for people at work is different.” In her opinion, nothing is being done to create better and, most importantly, healthier workplaces.
About the Dunning Kruger Effect
Immersing myself in the management thinking world has made me think that everyone knows what I know. Then I stumbled over an interview with David Dunning2, who, with Justin Kruger, discovered the Dunning Kruger effect3, a cognitive bias describing the tendency to assume expertise that one doesn’t have, essentially being overconfident in one’s abilities.
In the interview, Dunning says nobody is immune to it as we all have an area of incompetence. However, as we don’t know what we don’t know, we need someone else to point out what knowledge we lack.
“The Dunning-Kruger effect visits all of us sooner or later in our pockets of incompetence. They’re invisible to us because to know that you don't know something, you need to know something. It’s not about general stupidity. It’s about each and every one of us, sooner or later.” David Dunning (2)
Toxic Workplaces and What to Do About It
Another comprehensive article by Havard Business School Executive Director Carin-Isabel Knoop discusses how to engineer better workplaces by Bringing Systems Thinking to the Human Capital Challenge4. Knoop argues that workplaces are more toxic than ever and that companies need different approaches to create healthy workplace cultures. One approach could be to take an analytical and systematic approach. Knoop suggests following an engineer’s thinking to find a solution based on the current cultural environment and a root cause analysis. This would be unique for every organisation but may help to identify what needs to change to support its employees’ mental health and well-being. An article well worth reading for everyone within an organisation who cares about non-toxic work environments.
“After Diversity Theater came Caring Theater. Now, leaders wonder why many organizations seem to be winding up with negative returns on investment for these diversity and well-being programs. Workplaces are even more toxic than before, and employees are headed for the exits for various reasons related to the problems businesses are trying to prevent.” Isabel Knoop (4)
Taking Responsibility
I have heard of tick box exercises when it comes to DEI initiatives. Organisations make it mandatory for their employees to attend sessions designed and facilitated by external consultants and trainers to change their behaviours, to make them communicate better with each other or to increase their level of engagement. Though well-intended, such initiatives often fail to address the root cause of a toxic workplace culture.
In my opinion, it all starts with our thinking. The more we think, that we need others or something outside of our control to change the more toxic our thinking becomes. And the more people in an organisation think this way the more toxic a culture becomes. The reasons are simple, we can’t change what we have no control over, i.e. people, their behaviours or their thinking. All we can do is accept what we experience and change what we can change: The way we think and our actions.
By saying ‘the way we think’, I don’t mean what to think. Neither do I mean, to override negative thoughts with positive ones. Instead, you want to consider the following three steps:
✅ Acknowledge your negative thoughts and accept them as your initial response
✅ Explore the polar opposite of those thoughts
✅ Look for evidence of how this opposite could be true, too
These steps help us to acknowledge what frustrates us and see a broader perspective. With this, we can address an issue, a conflict and even some unrealistic expectations from a more objective frame of mind, using the engineering tools Knoop refers to in her article. By adopting this approach, we may be more open to considering someone else’s perspective without stumbling over the Dunning-Kruger effect. Over time, this will help workplaces become more psychologically safe and less toxic.
As for my friend, she helped me see something I hadn’t seen before. I learned that despite extensive research, initiatives and organisational development programmes, there is still a long way to go for workplaces to become conducive to their employees’ mental health and well-being.
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What Is Psychological Safety? by Amy Gallo, Havard Business Review, February 15, 2023 https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety
David Dunning: Overcoming Overconfidence by Corey S. Powell, Open Mind, April 5, 2024, https://www.openmindmag.org/articles/david-dunning-on-expertise?mc_cid=01c5182117&mc_eid=019f3f42d8
Engineering Better Workplaces: Bringing Systems Thinking to the Human Capital Challenge by Carin-Isabel Knoop, Medium, April 21, 2024 https://carinisabelknoop.medium.com/engineering-better-workplaces-bringing-systems-thinking-to-the-human-capital-challenge-76782148232b