Reducing Fear and Isolation by Building More Connected Workspace Cultures
Making Space to Digest & Grieve
The election is over-ish and the urgency and stress we’ve been feeling above and beyond the normal rumbling has cut deep for many of us—leaving us feeling othered and isolated rather than connected and nourished.
White supremacy characteristics have certainly been spreading more intensely across even the most well-meaning and intentional spaces throughout this election season—perpetuating fear, power imbalances, disorientation, perfectionism and either/or thinking just to name a few.
In difficult times like these, it’s the power of community that uplifts us. “Those of us working for institutional change endeavor to become a beloved community among ourselves as we are striving for all of society to exemplify the beloved community.” The Beloved Community: A Conversation between bell hooks and George Brosi
So first and foremost, even though we do not know what is to come over the next several months and years, let’s collectively slow down, pause for a moment and consider how we can check-in, grieve and develop more nourishing connections within ourselves so that we can do so more deeply with one another.
Daniel Hunter recently shared in a Waging Nonviolence article, “for us to be of any use in a Trump world, we have to pay grave attention to our inner states, so we don’t perpetuate the autocrat’s goals of fear, isolation, exhaustion or constant disorientation.”
Building community requires vigilant awareness of the work we must do continually to undermine all the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination.
-bell hooks
Building Deeper Trust Within Our Work Spaces
Our virtual workplace (rootid teammates, clients and colleagues) is one of the first spaces that I look for connection and nourishment. I have had the privilege of rootid being a safe place for me to find these things, but that safety did not happen all at once. It took time, partnership and co-designing systems and structures for our team to rest within—we call this our internal communications culture.
Every organization has a culture [in place], whether or not it has an explicit internal communication plan. A lack of intentional strategy still shapes culture, often producing unintentional chaos, power dynamics and inequities that have rippling effects.
In our quest for justice and equality, we must acknowledge how white supremacy characteristics continue to infiltrate even the most well-meaning workplaces. These characteristics perpetuate chaos by encouraging urgency over thoughtfulness and prioritizing accomplishment over strategy.
So, how do you develop a healthy internal communications strategy? Well, for the last few years, rootid has been working to develop practices, systems, processes and protocols that not only align with our values, but allow us as team members to embody those values in all that we do. Below are some of the steps and strategies we have put into place for ourselves.
5 Steps Towards a Healthy Internal Communications Culture
- Team members feel they matter. [visualization workshop]
- Team members’ feedback is acknowledged, valued and acted upon. [communications culture survey]
- Staff user guides are created and shared to inform and build alignment amongst team members. [me mapping exercise]
- Decision-making infrastructures are developed and nurtured [POP, DACI and agenda templates]
- Knowledge management is transparent and accessible [documentation]
1. Visualization: When We Matter
Feelings of isolation are rising and it can become easier to unconsciously dehumanize members of your team, regardless if your workplace has returned to in-person or is still virtual. Strained communications and unresolved conflict can lead to less than favorable outcomes.
The first step is to establish foundational trust so that people feel seen, heard and included in a transparent process. Open the process for people to self-select into, maybe even give the newly formed group a name so participants feel a part of something unique together.
To this end, rootid facilitates a virtual ‘When We Matter’ visualization workshop, to help people feel more included as well as elevate and begin to heal the unclear protocols and language that are causing your team members to feel othered.
We begin with the visualization workshop rather than the survey, in order to help people understand the context of this work, shift their mindsets and begin building trust that if they share openly, they will not experience harm in return. This allows the connective journey to begin.
2. Assessing the Current System: Communications Culture Survey
In collaboration with the newly formed process group, rootid next co-designs and develops a communications culture survey so that all community voices can be heard and included. This tool will help us understand the state of current internal communications and the areas of challenge and/or improvement that are needed. Make sure to provide this survey in all the languages that are used by your staff and that it is clear to them how the data will be used. This is a tool to build trust with your community, not extract information from them. Just the act of making this survey available in multiple languages and framing it as a place to acknowledge them, their value and how you will act upon what they share helps them to feel more seen and included which makes it more likely that they will share information you may not have heard in the past.
3. Developing User Guides
rootid next co-designs and conducts a virtual workshop that helps team members share how they work most effectively.
This activity provides a space for individuals to build trust/camaraderie amongst one another and will also deepen empathy by understanding the whole self and not just the workplace self. By making space for team members to reflect on their needs and expectations, they are able to see themselves as well as each other more clearly.
Read more about developing user guides here: https://rootid.com/think/me-mapping-elements-to-include-in-your-user-guide/
4. Decision-making infrastructures and nurturing communications processes and protocols
“Alfred Adler said all humans have two core universal needs: significance and belonging. I think they’re mutually reinforcing: it is difficult to feel agency if we don’t feel like we belong. It is difficult to feel like we belong when we feel powerless.” Applied Wisdom: Cultivating Culture
The next stage of this work involves developing and/or updating your internal communications by developing clear and inclusive decision-making processes through the creation of customized POP and DACI protocols—purpose, outcomes, process, and delineating roles transparently lead to clarifying responsibilities. This results in reducing disagreements and friction within the team, while also increasing the efficiency of projects.
5. Knowledge Management
Change management is hard. Oftentimes, new systems, processes, templates and protocols get abandoned because people do not want to change. However, if you have gone through each of the steps above, our hope is that your team will feel more bought into the full process and see how their solidarity in collectively doing things differently will make things better for everyone.
The idea of solidarity describes the ways in which we are bound together and how we can act, in concert, to change our circumstances. It is a form of reciprocity rooted in the acknowledgment that our lives are intertwined…it is something you do—a set of actions taken toward a common goal…Solidarity both produces community and is rooted in it, and is thus simultaneously a means and an end.
–Astra Taylor & Leah Hunt-Hendrix
So, then you just need to make everything easy to find and access, which is where knowledge management comes into play. First, acknowledge what your actual tech stack is and meet people where they are. Your survey data should tell you what tools people actually use. Don’t try implementing Monday, Sharepoint, Asana or Notion if everyone is barely using Google Drive consistently.
Getting everyone in the same place and making the new processes have as low barriers to adoption as possible is the key to this all. Any amount of additional mental burden is too much to put on people who are already overworked and underpaid.
Once everything is moving efficiently, information is flowing more smoothly, and everyone knows how to share information with their colleagues more effectively, there will be less urgency and burnout as a direct result.
Final Thoughts
Together, we can change culture and break away from the harmful cycles that lead to burnout and disillusionment. By embracing internal communications practices rooted in equity and authentic relationships, we can ensure that our practices and expectations reflect a place where everyone’s well-being is prioritized.
So, to all the nonprofit leaders, internal communicators and other development and communications professionals out there: your well-being matters, you matter. Join us in taking steps towards a future where burnout is replaced with fulfillment and where equitable practices pave the way for more connected workspace cultures.
Are you ready to nurture a more equitable and communication-centered culture at your organization? Reach out for a free consultation—we’d love to help you make this vision a reality.