If someone begins slipping into burnout behaviours in the form of ‘enmeshment’ (becoming overly involved in their work) or ‘disconnection’ (becoming cynical or withdrawn), a team that feels a sense of solidarity and psychological safety is more likely to be able to support the person to get back to what Dr Vikki Reynolds calls the ‘Zone of Fabulousness’ (feeling connected to ourselves, our bodies, our emotions, others, and one’s work).
Vikki says that we can only be at our best when there is a collective responsibility to support and care for one another.
The ‘Collective care conversation’ is a 3-step process to help teams achieve this.
Centred in our ethics
The first conversation topic is about how ethics helps teams know what they are accountable for, and what behaviour is acceptable in the work together. It is important to remain centred in the team’s collective ethics. Regularly revisiting values brings everyone onto the same page.
Core values and ethics are important, especially when there has been a lot of change within a team or within an organisation’s structure or ethos.
Team culture of ‘safe enough’
The second conversation topic is about building a culture of ‘safe enough’.
When it comes to putting collective care into practice, Vikki advises that it is important for teams not to strive for a sense of ’perfect safety’ when building solidarity. Rather, feeling ‘safe enough’ is a more reasonable pursuit, given the conversations needed will sometimes make workers feel uncomfortable.
It is important to discern between feeling unsafe versus feeling uncomfortable, which is necessary for growth and learning.
Having tricky conversations quickly and early, rather than letting things go on for a while, can help prevent problems from escalating. And even though it may be uncomfortable, Vikki urges workers not to get stuck in the ‘politics of politeness’, but to be honest and vulnerable with each other without blaming or shaming.
Colleagues need to bring each other back to what centres them in the work for the clients they are trying to support. Connection is key in this space.
Collective accountability is also crucial to develop a safe enough team culture. When one worker has issues or transgresses, it becomes the role of the entire team to wonder how the transgression happened collectively rather than blaming or singling that worker out.
In working towards a safe enough team culture, power dynamics inherent in relationships need to be recognised. Shifting towards a culture of greater honesty is a process which takes time. Some ground rules to increase a sense of safety amongst the team are recommended.
Shouldering each other up
The best resource in doing the work is one another. Solidarity drew people to this work, and it can foster collective sustainability.
The third step in the Collective care conversation is to consider how teams can collectively support each other so that they don’t leave it to the individual. It’s about understanding that team members have a responsibility to help each other and consider that perhaps they could do more to keep each other connected to their collective ethics.
The questions below help teams to reflect on the responsibilities they have to themselves and each other. It’s recommended that teams use it on a regular basis to reflect on how things are going and then adapt and prioritise as necessary.
Exercise
This exercise is best done as a team either in person or online using a digital whiteboard. It could be used as part of a team meeting or at a dedicated session.
The exercise will take approximately 45 minutes and is more effective if it is revisited on a regular (quarterly) basis.
Have your existing organisational vision and values available to help you complete this exercise. You may want to print this for each person and/or encourage the team to review them prior to the exercise.
Explain the purpose of the exercise using the above text. The information from the Zone of Fabulousness Resource (link to be added) can provide further background.
Ensure everyone has access and time to reflect on the 3 questions.
Ask each small group to note and report back on key discussion points.
Instructions
Meet with the team (preferably in person) and explain you are going to be exploring questions relating to ethics, creating a ‘safe enough’ culture within the team and how we can better support one another based on the thinking and work of Vikki Reynolds.
Read the text at the top of the page to summarise the thinking behind each topic of conversation or speak to it in your own words.
Let the team know they’ll be splitting into small groups of 3 to discuss each question separately and feed back to the team on key points.
Provide at least 10-minutes per question and come back to the larger group after each question to share thoughts.
Document key ideas on each of the 3 topics and agree on how best to display the Collective ethics and care discussion points so that it can be used as a helpful reminder.
Collective care conversation starters
| Centred in our ethics | Culture of safe enough | Shouldering each other up |
|---|---|---|
What are the ethics that underpin our work with clients? What are the ethics, values and ways of being that drew you to this work and you hold sacred? What ethics are required for your work, without which you would be unable to work? How do we do this work in ways that are in accord with our collective ethics? | How are we inviting each other back to accountability when we slip away from these ethics, even when it’s uncomfortable? How do we ensure we don’t hide behind the term ‘feeling unsafe’ to avoid challenging conversations with one another? How do we discern between feeling unsafe versus feeling uncomfortable? How do, or will, we know that our team is safe enough? What will be doing differently? How is our privilege and power playing out in various relationship dynamics and interactions? | How are we practicing collective care and solidarity as we learn, repair, and sustain our justice work together? How do we ensure we don’t blame individual workers for transgressions but adopt collective accountability? How have you invited colleagues into being useful for you in solidarity and your care? What are you needing? Critique? Witness? Support? Who at work can you ‘howl at the moon’ (where you release your rage) with, who won’t judge, pathologise or rescue you? |
Resources
Download the collective care conversation worksheet along with the full catalogue of health, safety and wellbeing resources:
Sources
Reynolds V 2019, ‘The Zone of Fabulousness: Resisting vicarious trauma with connection, collective care and justice-doing in ways that centre the people we work alongside’, Context, 164: 36–39.
Reynolds V 2021, Solidarity, collective care and sustainability: responding to gender-based violence. Courage to Act, Canada.
Reynolds V and McQuaid M 2021, ‘Do you have a culture of collective accountability?’, Making Positive Psychology Work podcast.
Updated