Active bystandership – What is it?

Defining a term is important. When you are unclear in what you are talking about those people you are trying to influence will create their own definition. When you provide clarity you provide opportunity. To help people see differently you first need to help them think differently.

Active bystandership – What is it?  This is a question I ask at the start of every training session I deliver.  I ask it because the term has this slippery quality that presents confusion and justified disagreement. At first glance it looks like an oxymoron. A “bystander” suggests passivity, someone watching from the sidelines. Add “active,” and suddenly you’re asking someone to step into the messy middle of a situation where most humans would prefer not to be. That conceptual tension is the first seed of misunderstanding.

Other challenges I face is that many confuse it with heroics. Folks sometimes think active bystandership means rushing into danger or confronting someone aggressively. It’s often subtle—distracting, defusing, checking in later, signalling solidarity. As I say often it’s not about being the hero.  It’s about doing what’s right.  What’s right for you, a friend, a colleague, your organisation or your community.

Many think it means confrontation only. Many assume you must directly call someone out. But sometimes the smartest intervention is indirect—like changing the subject, or steering a friend home before they escalate, or later supporting the person targeted.  Many underestimate the social gravity of “doing nothing.” A frozen bystander isn’t just neutral—they’re unintentionally reinforcing the harmful behaviour by leaving it unchallenged. Active bystandership is about breaking that gravitational pull toward silence.

The term itself is jargon-y. When someone first hears it, they may not connect it to real-life, everyday situations: bullying at school, initiations in sports teams, abuse in workplaces, or risky behaviour among friends. Strip the phrase down and it’s really just “choosing to act when others freeze.” 

Misunderstanding thrives because people overestimate how dramatic intervention needs to be and underestimate how ordinary, human-scale it often is.  The interesting question isn’t just why people misunderstand it, but why our species evolved to hesitate in the first place—why diffusion of responsibility and fear of sticking out are so deeply baked into us. That’s where psychology, anthropology, and cultural training all converge. We are social creatures, so the risk of rejection or reprisal weighs heavier than the abstract benefit of “doing the right thing.”

So, for me it’s so important to define what we are talking about.  Active bystander is about reducing harm.  As I detail above many simply connect it to a bad behaviour however it’s important to widen a definition of harm to include harm from mistakes and harm from poor wellbeing.  All these harms are relevant to any team or organisation.  They are relevant also to communities across the country.  Why?  Because people see things.  Friends witness friends struggling with poor wellbeing.  Colleagues see another colleague being bullied or harassed at work.  Neighbours become aware of a neighbour suffering domestic abuse.  Bus/train passengers witness sexual harassment or racism on transport networks.

Active bystandership doesn’t always start with an act. It can and often starts with a thought: “I wonder what it feels like to be them” or “what’s happening to them that’s making them do this”. When we change perspective, we help change our perception and our first response.

I wanted to use this short piece to focus you on the power we all have to make a difference, but only if we choose to use that power.  At a time when the United Kingdom is being divided by people who strive to lead our country active bystandership presents an opportunity for people to come together and find commonality.  It presents an opportunity for ordinary people to intervene to reduce harm.

Note  – I plan to follow this short piece with another short piece on how this concept can support many different groups and settings.

As ever thanks for reading.