Cultivating an Actively Caring Culture: The Courage and Compassion of an Injury-Free Workplace

In an actively caring culture, people look out for the safety and welfare of others with courage and compassion, enabling the achievement of an injury-free environment. This paper explains these qualities with regard to occupational safety, and entertains ways to cultivate a brothers-sisters-keepers' culture of actively caring.

Most people care, but too often, people fail to act on their caring. They seemingly lack the courage to step to the plate to prevent potential harm to another person. All the six sigma, behavior-based safety and customer-focus directives will not make a difference unless people have the courage to speak up and act on behalf of a particular performance-improvement process. Indeed, without courage, most well-intentioned initiatives become another “flavor of the month.”

Courage is not a human trait, but a person state that varies according to certain circumstances and interpersonal interactions. These are given practical relevance in The Courage Factor: Leading People-Based Culture Change¹ and reviewed here. First, we need to consider another dimension of actively caring.

THE COMPASSION DIMENSION

Compassionate people are considerate and responsive to the feelings and circumstances of others. They listen and speak with empathy. Thus, while courage increases as a function of a person's relevant competence and commitment, the positive human impact of one's courage is a direct function of his or her compassion. The outcome is actively caring.

Authentic and effective actively caring requires courage plus compassion. A person who is competent and committed in a situation calling for actively caring might not have the courage to act. But when it comes to interpersonal intervention, courage without compassion can be ineffective or even perilous. So how can a culture increase actively caring?

Many factors that influence one's propensity to actively care can be subsumed under the general label - culture. A work culture, for example, can incorporate an accountability system that encourages interpersonal helping, and the daily interactions of people influence certain person states that affect one's propensity to go beyond the call of duty for another person's safety. In other words, the frequency of actively caring varies directly according to extrinsic response contingencies and indirectly as a function of certain dispositional person states.

THE DIRECT APPROACH

For almost 20 years, I have promoted the use of a special, “actively-caring thank you card” at my university for recognizing individuals following their people-based discretionary behavior. The front of this brightly colored card includes designated spaces for the name of the person being recognized, the particular actively caring behavior and the name of the observer.

Several organizations have customized this thank-you card for their culture. I have seen this simple thank-you-card process cultivate a sense of interdependence and belongingness throughout a workgroup, as well as help people feel good about their actively caring.

In their 2005 book, Measure of a Leader, Aubrey and James Daniels describe a creative device they successfully have used for years to motivate discretionary helping behaviors throughout an organization. Specifically, they hang a chart in a conspicuous location that lists the names of all employees in a certain work area. Then they give each person a sticker identifying that individual. Subsequently, whenever a worker is helped by a coworker, that person puts his or her identifying sticker on the chart, next to the name of the person who actively cared.

The Daniels brothers report dramatic culture change as a result of this public accountability system for interpersonal discretionary behavior. “Not only does it give recognition for those who help, but it is an antecedent for others to take the initiative in finding ways they can help other team members.”²

THE INDIRECT APPROACH

Genuine appreciation and recognition can have dramatic, positive effects on a person's attitude, mindset and disposition. Indeed, a recognition system that directly acknowledges actively caring behavior can result in a spiraling cycle of propitious culture change.

Positive regard for people's helping behaviors increases the frequency of the target behavior directly, while simultaneously feeding the five person states that set the occasion for more actively caring. Let's define these person states, and entertain ways to augment them.

Self-Esteem (“I am valuable”) - How do you feel about yourself? Research has shown that people with high self-esteem report fewer negative emotions and less depression than those with low self-esteem, and they handle life's stressors with more confidence and competence. Most importantly, the better we feel about ourselves, the more willing we are to actively care for the welfare of others.

Actually, common sense tells us people will not act to protect others from personal injury if they do not perceive themselves as being worthwhile. Our common sense also informs us of ways to increase our own and others' self-esteem. Consider, for example, the following A-words that reflect certain types of interpersonal conversations that can boost a person's self-esteem: accept, actively listen, agree, appreciate, acknowledge, approve, ask, attend, avoid criticizing and argue less.

Factors consistently listed as affecting self-esteem include communication strategies, reward and penalty contingencies and certain leadership styles. Participants at my actively caring seminars have suggested a number of ways to build self-esteem, including: a) providing opportunities for personal learning and peer mentoring, b) increasing recognition for desirable behaviors and personal accomplishments and c) soliciting and following up on a person's suggestions.

Self-Efficacy (“I can do it”) - Self-efficacy is more situational-specific than self-esteem, and refers to a person's sense of competence at a particular task. Thus, job-specific feedback directly impacts self-efficacy. When individuals believe they are doing worthwhile work well, their self-efficacy increases, along with their willingness to actively care.