Listen
Description
These resources will help you to foster a safe and encouraging culture that proactively seeks employee input and is receptive to their opinions and ideas about how the organization can deliver on its sustainability commitments.
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Resources
EDI Leading Practices: A Guide for Companies
Workplace equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is a complex and rapidly evolving space, and increasingly, companies are interested in understanding how to meaningfully advance EDI in their organisations. To help them do so, we consulted EDI research and guidance, reviewed practices of over 100 companies, and sought input from practitioners across a range of industries and geographies. Our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Leading Practices Guide offers a comprehensive framework with practices, case studies, and resources to help organisations embed EDI into their strategy, structures, and culture.
Liberating Structures
There are five conventional structures that guide the way we organise routine interactions and how groups work together: presentations, managed discussions, open discussions, status reports, and brainstorm sessions. These structures, however, can stifle inclusion and engagement, and are often too inhibiting or too loose and disorganised. To complement these more conventional options and improve shared knowledge and engagement, Liberating Structures introduces a menu of 33 innovative methods. Each method includes expected outcomes, step-by-step instructions, "tips and traps," examples, and more.
Workplace Democracy for the 21st Century
This paper can help you understand the importance of workplace democracy, or employee voice, and how it can enable a more engaged and participatory workplace - that is, how much employees have a say over their working conditions (such as pay, benefits, scheduling) and the wider set of policies that govern work and employment. The first section of the report introduces the topic and its historic linkages; the second section makes the case for advancing workplace democracy, such as greater equality, political participation, and productivity; and the third section outlines how workplace democracy can be revived through traditional mechanisms, such as unions, as well as alternative models and approaches suited to workers in non-standard employment relationships. These insights will provide a fresh perspective on employee voice, which will be most useful to HR, sustainability, and leadership teams.
5 Ways to Listen Better
If you are thinking about how to support employees to become better listeners, this Ted Talk is a good place to start. Julian Treasure explains how and why we are losing our listening, and offers a few simple exercises and strategies to improve your listening. You may want to consider digging a bit deeper into his idea of “listening positions,” which is detailed in his book Sound Business.
10 ways to have a better conversation
This is a great TED Talk for improving your listening skills. Celeste Headlee draws on years of experience in public radio to share ten useful rules for having better conversations.
Be A Guide: Our Guiding Principles
Project InsideOut created these "irreducible, interrelated, and mutually reinforcing" guiding principles to guide people to transform and shift consumption patterns and behaviour. Informed by clinical psychologists, sustainability professionals, researchers, and design thinkers, these five guiding principles - attune, reveal, convene, equip, sustain - are grounded in evidence-based studies, research, best practices, and years of wisdom. If your organisation is looking to create, foster, and grow a culture of connection and support, this resource is a good starting point, and especially for leaders, HR personnel, and change agents.
Psychological Safety in Practice: A Guidebook for Managers
This guide from the CEO Health + Safety Leadership Network can help you become a psychologically safe leader. It provides practical tips, tools, and insights on four areas of psychological safety. This includes the process of developing a work environment where people feel respected and heard; creating a sense of purpose and belonging by building connections and managing emotions; supporting mental health and resilience; and adopting a personal growth mindset that destigmatises failure. The guide also features a set of real-life scenarios that offer practical advice from experts. Although designed specifically for managers, this resource will be useful to senior leaders as well. HR practitioners may also find it a useful tool to reference and share internally with managers and leaders.
How Leaders Can Build Psychological Safety at Work
Psychological safety in the workplace is the "belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.” This article from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) can help you understand how fostering psychological safety can create a more creative, collaborative, and effective work environment. It explains the importance of psychological safety and argues that the rise of virtual work makes it more important than ever. It then outlines eight steps leaders can follow to increase psychological safety and four stages of psychological safety that can help you gauge your organisation’s maturity. This resource will be most useful to business leaders, HR professionals, and sustainability practitioners.
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