This piece highlights that human silence isn’t inevitable. It suggests that a culture of active bystandership leads to increases in both early informal action and in the formal reporting of harm to line managers and HR departments. The piece makes use of social science dating back to 1961 to support it’s conclusion. In my work … Continue reading You want to make reporting harm normal. Introduce a culture of active bystandership.
The Bigger Picture
Is behaviour the problem or the symptom? In this piece I urge senior leaders and indeed society to stop seeing the bad behaviour as the problem. Service level observations simply lead to service level responses. A deeper and more meaningful dive is needed into the culture and ask (1) Why, despite the many reports into … Continue reading The Bigger Picture
How active bystandership can support a multi-agency partnership.
Active bystandership is like the immune system of a workplace, team or partnership: when people step in early and constructively, they prevent small problems from becoming a major crisis. The benefits ripple outward in ways that touch everyone, not just the direct “targets” of intervention. Many child/adult safeguarding failures are due to poor communication or … Continue reading How active bystandership can support a multi-agency partnership.
When we act, everyone benefits
The use of bystander type trainings in organisations will have little or no effect when the message centres solely on protecting certain individuals or groups. In likes of policing, the focus on VAWG has been to build trust in the profession as well as supporting victims. Whilst important, when bystander approaches communicate that action benefits … Continue reading When we act, everyone benefits
The power of responsibility
A sense of responsibility has been found to be a big motivator that supports individuals to move from a passive role to an active one. This blog aims to discuss the role of responsibility and how teams and organisations can harness it's power. Imagine you’re standing at the edge of a river, and someone falls … Continue reading The power of responsibility
