Social safety is something every company should strive for all employees, regardless of their origin. But how do you achieve social safety? It requires respecting and embracing our cultural differences. Learning from each other, and above all, respecting one another.
Let a relationship form from both sides
In my opinion, to achieve social safety, it’s important to look at how you build a relationship with employees. Building a relationship can be done in two ways. It can be done in an egocentric way, where you look at your needs and seek them from others. With the idea, I need an employee. They should be able to code but also be a bit sociable, able to make a bit of jokes. This approach doesn’t easily lead to social safety.
If you want to create social safety, then let the relationship form by both sides. In a team, this means that everyone co-owns the relationship.
As a company, it’s easy to say: this is our culture. And then build recruitment around that. That means that when you hire new employees, they have to fit in. But what if the culture is about getting to know people as they are? So, bring your own food. Tell us how you like to do things.
Really get to know your colleagues
The Dutch mentality often keeps work and personal life separate. But it doesn’t have to be so black and white. I prefer to say: get to know the person. Keeping work and personal life separate may feel safe. But the question remains: how does the person feel in the team? After all, you do want to be able to bring your own ‘self’ to work.
If you want to get to know each other, it is important to also empathize with the perspective of the other. For example: in your colleague’s culture, people get married at a young age. Try to see that first from the perspective of the other before giving your own perspective. To understand that perspective, you can of course ask questions. Like: how does freedom work in your culture?
Once you get to know the system behind a culture, things logically follow from there. If you look at everything from your own system, everything about another culture will seem illogical.
What I often notice is that we say: a joke must be possible, right? It’s just a joke, we say when we insult someone. And I also believe that jokes should be possible. However, a joke in an environment where there is a feeling of inequality is different than in an environment where there is 100 percent trust and respect. Because then you know that that one joke doesn’t insinuate anything. A joke is possible, but in the right environment. And that requires investing in an equal relationship first.
Cultures are like flavors in an ice cream shop
I’m the last person to say that you can’t have an opinion. You can say that my culture is not for you. But I do think you can only say that once you’ve acknowledged my culture, and taken the effort to get to know it. Not when you’ve judged it only from your own system. If you look: does this make sense from their tradition, and where they come from? Then you quickly discover that all cultures are equally beautiful. They’re like different flavors in an ice cream shop. Not everything is your taste. For example, I don’t like almond flavour. But it’s allowed to exist.
A relationship does not have to be fully built in one day. It takes quite a bit of investment to reach a level where you really experience social safety. But mutual respect is needed from day one. As well as the will and motivation to invest. And that’s not always a given.