Three years ago, Frederique van Alfen-Las, team leader within the newly formed Business Support department at Campus & Facilities, was actively searching for a tool to have conversations with her colleagues about a safe working environment. ‘This was before social safety became an important theme at our university,’ she explains. ‘Our new department was created by merging existing teams. Colleagues from different parts of the organisation suddenly had to work together. At one of the first department meetings, we asked what they needed to make this work. A common answer was: a safe working environment.’
To create such a safe atmosphere, it was important to understand what colleagues meant by that. Frederique eventually found the course card ‘Should Be OK?’ in the online learning platform gROW, a tool she could download as a PDF. ‘It’s a card with concrete steps to conduct conversations about a safe working environment,’ she explains. ‘Across nine discussion rounds, each with its own theme, you delve into social conduct together with colleagues. Each round begins with an introduction, followed by questions or examples of behaviour. One colleague acts as discussion leader, asking follow-up questions. The other participants share their views on certain situations and conduct, while another colleague keeps time and takes notes on a corresponding template.’
From course card to visual discussion chart
According to Frederique, the conversations serve a higher purpose. ‘By listening to how everyone views certain behaviours, you get to know each other better. You learn what colleagues find comfortable and what they don’t. You can then take that into account.’
Frederique and her colleagues used the discussion outcomes to set work agreements. ‘We took the initiative to visually convert these agreements, independent of the course card format, into a visual discussion chart, which now serves as an important guideline for collaboration within our department. The chart is available in our Teams environment, referenced in our quarterly meetings, and is a handy tool to refer back to during one-on-one meetings. We continuously link it to work-related themes.’
Responding and Preventing
Looking back, Frederique concludes that using the course card has yielded much within her department. ‘It contributes to greater connection,’ she says. ‘The course card format helped us not only discuss social conduct but also make agreements on how to respond to unwanted behaviour and how to prevent it. The excuse that certain behaviour is just how someone is, doesn’t hold anymore. We hold each other accountable. And if you find it difficult to do this yourself, others are there to help. Doing nothing is no longer an option.’
Frederique recommends the use of the course card to everyone. ‘It’s an accessible tool, visually appealing, and you can use it as you see fit. It takes little time to get started, half a day is enough. You could use the course card within your team as a follow-up to the university-wide Active Bystander Training, but then with your immediate colleagues and examples from your own work context. You not only help each other but also immediately strengthen your team.’