Your Safe Space Isn’t Safe

Want great people and a great team? You'll have to be unsafe.

“Change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Roy T. Bennett

Who doesn’t yearn to feel safe? From a locked door, to a mother’s loving arms, to a routine which comforts us, we all look for safe spaces. With contemporary threats such as toxic bosses and school shootings, the term and the concept of safe space has gained in popularity. Safe spaces are not a bad thing. I work hard to create safe spaces in my businesses and with people I coach. “You’re safe here,” I’ll state in an interview to put a potential hire at ease or in a coaching session when I’m urging a person to be vulnerable to foster growth. “This is a safe environment,” I’ll state when I’m hosting a meeting where I want people to offer criticism or take ownership for their failings. Through all this however, I know the space is not completely safe. It shouldn’t be.

While leaders strive to create safety, if they want their people and their organization to advance and grow – if they want lead change, they must also venture into unsafe or dangerous spaces. Unsafe spaces are also not a bad thing. Let me explain. If people are to offer constructive criticism, admit fault, or challenge an idea, they will lose some element of safety. If hard conversations are to take place, as they should (see my previous blog on this topic), the space will be unsafe. If a business desires to leverage the talent of its people to tease out the best ideas on products or marketing approaches or to solve a wicked problem, it must engage in debate – a debate where people will disagree and even argue to produce the best idea or solution. Professor, author, and lecturer Jordan B. Peterson states, “In order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive.” Indeed, no leader should ever create a ‘cage match’ environment where people are belittled, berated, or beaten. Yet they should challenge individuals and teams all in the name of improvement, growth, and peak performance.