This week's BIG Takeaway: Psychological safety is foundational, not something you start to focus on when there is a crisis
Video: YouTube
A sad day for soccer How many more stories like this do we need to hear?
The context: Last week "an independent investigation into the scandals that erupted in the National Women’s Soccer League...found emotional abuse and sexual misconduct were systemic in the sport." - Boston Globe
The video above provides a summary as well as insight and analysis of the report that shows coaches used their power and influence to inflict physical and psychological harm on players.
Some players were intimidated and most were terrified to speak up about the environment. Some were told, despite the abuse, that they should just be thankful to be on the team.
"Bosses...up through the league office, all the way up to the league’s partner and national governing body, the United States Soccer Federation, doing nothing about it despite being given detailed evidence of the sordid behavior." (Tara Sullivan, Boston Globe)
What we can learn: This all might have been avoided - and people might not have been harmed - if senior leadership had taken action years ago.
The worst thing about this report is that people at the most senior levels knew what was happening and did nothing.
One owner to chalked things up to "[Coach] Rory being [Coach] Rory."
The inaction of the senior leaders enabled the coaches to continue to inflict their wrath on their players.
My take: This is a case study on how NOT to create a culture of psychological safety.
The time to act was when the information was first reported. Now, things are in chaos, people have been harmed and the path forward might be decided by courts and lawyers, not boards of directors or strategic planners.
Because the culture was so toxic, people who spoke up were punished, those who saw that happen became even more frightened and the cycle spun more and more out of control.
Sadly I expect that now we will hear about programs and training focused on the foundations of psychological safety - ensuring all employees feel safe, respected and that their voices will be heard.
It might be too late; at this point why would any player expect things to change?
This week's BIG Takeaway: Psychological safety is foundational, not something you start to focus on when there is a crisis
Lights, camera...ACTION
👉ONE BIG thing you can do right now
Make two lists. The first is a list of all the good things that could result from creating a culture of psychological safety. The other is a list of all the good things that could result by waiting. Reflect on what you wrote.
📢 Our weekly group prompts
Work withyour team or other colleagues to dig deeper into this topic using our simple conversation prompts. Instead of a book club I like to think of this as our "movie-or-TV club."
This week's prompts: 1. Watch the video and discuss what each person believes to be the key lessons. 2. What could have been done to avoid this situation? 3. What does each person think should/will happen to the owners and coaches and why? 4. Are there things that we need to address NOW instead of waiting?
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