At Bird we talk a lot about looking at our own individual wellbeing and resilience. We explore strategies and ideas that help you take care of yourself as you do challenging work and live in an unpredictable world. It’s really important to think about how you can support yourself, how you can get out of your own way and tap into more self-compassion to help make life and work a little easier.
However, self-care cannot stand alone, it has to sit within a healthy environment. We can do all the self-care in the world but if we live or work in a toxic environment it can be extremely difficult to remain resilient.
That’s why it’s important to talk about culture within an organisation. In your organisation, what is the culture like? Is there a dominant culture that folks naturally fall in line with?
I know I have worked in several organisations where the dominant culture didn’t always allow for staff to bring their whole selves to the work place, it was easier to tow the organisational line than to express a different opinion or to align to an alternative view point.
If you are reading this as a leader within an organisation it is really important to take a step back to look at what the overall dominant culture is, oftentimes it isn’t clear or obvious, and it isn’t clear or obvious why it is that way or where it comes from. But it is key to shine a light on what it might be. Then, you can identify whether there are any groups or individuals who are less included because of this culture. And you can begin to address any changes in power that might need to take place in order to shift that dominant culture.
It’s a tricky arena to navigate, and often it’s super hard to really identify what is going on and who might be impacted. But it’s important not to ignore it altogether, because if it is ignored it can almost be guaranteed that some people in the organisation won’t feel fully accepted or celebrated in their difference to that ‘norm’.
If you would like to chat with us more about this, and how we might be able to help your organisation to unpack and explore your culture drop us a line at hannah@birdmovement.com
With love as always, Hannah and Team Bird
Photo by Hudson Hintze on Unsplash