Drive out fear.

Many years ago when I studied quality improvement in healthcare I found the work of W. Edwards Deming.  One of his principles that always resonated with me was, very simply: ‘drive out fear’.

These are very small but very powerful words because ‘fear’ in organisations or teams does untold damage. It shuts down collaboration and innovation, it closes down discussion and discord amongst staff, people become suspicious of one another, trust dies and lies emerge.

I know this because I’ve worked in organisations where fear is present, I worked in one place where it was perpetrated enthusiastically by a particular. director.  Fear was used as a tool to pit manager against manager because it was ‘how he got the best of his staff’. He honestly said that to me.

It all fell apart eventually, what really happened was that his people lied to him, told him what they thought he wanted to hear. They withheld important information in operational meetings, hid the truth, so that he would not attack them. So, in the end he was not given the correct information to make decisions on. And, here’s the thing, you cannot manage what you don’t know.

Talented people started to leave, culture suffered and ultimately human dignity was compromised.

In the end, he spectacularly orchestrated his own demise and had no one to blame but himself, he left (he had to) but like many bad apples, they do pop up again don’t they? In another guise, at another organisation.

It took a while for the department to recover from such vandalism, it took years to rebuild culture and trust, and for the patient safety to improve – because a culture of bullying affects patient safety, fact.

Deming understood, fear is toxic to organisational health. When employees spend mental energy navigating hostile relationships or protecting themselves from bullying, they cannot focus on actual work, continuous improvement, or innovation.

What can you do if you see this behaviour?

·        Keep yourself safe - check out your organisational policy on what to do.

·        Build strong allies - create networks of support across all levels of the organization.

·        Document patterns. Help establish the difference between isolated incidents and systemic issues.

·        Model the behaviour you want to see. Create psychological safety in your own team.

·        Get real. Is this a problem you see going away? As hard as it may be it could be time for you (the talent) to leave.

In the end, people don’t leave organisations, they leave people. 

Don’t tolerate bullying as part of your workplace culture.

Need help to think? Get in touch. 

#ProfessionalDevelopment #WorkplaceCulture #Leadership #Bullying #Healthcare