04/12/2025
Have you ever wondered why women (& other minority groups) find many workplaces or situations psychologically unsafe to speak up in?
This was the question at the heart of the 'Brave Spaces' online workshops I facilitated for EROAD's epic Women in Motion charter.
Thank you, from my heart, to Jaz at EROAD who asked me to design and deliver this workshop for their women's network. The engagement, questions and incredible feedback from delivering this workshop for their global team blew me away! Jaz also came up with the brilliant workshop title 'Brave Spaces'. So, kudos to Jaz for this fun collab :)
I've gleaned a lot of insights from 10+ years in the workforce, the majority of it spent either working in male dominated corporate or government workplaces or supporting male dominated workplaces, including 8 years studying and working in leadership development, neuroscience, trauma-informed facilitation practices and workplace wellbeing.
I'm also currently studying a Masters in Organisational Psychology part-time to go deeper into the evidence, research and solutions to questions like this 🤔📚.
For the 'Brave Spaces' workshops I was given the great challenge of synthesising 10+ years of experience, study and research into a 90 minute workshop involving practical tools & memorable frameworks.
Some of the ideas shared:
1. Our brain's #1 job is to keep us safe, not happy. Our brain / subconscious is scanning for threats in unfamiliar environments and creates memory/meaning that is stored in the nervous system, e.g. if I speak up will I be punished, receive risks to my career or be seen as difficult / too much / overly sensitive?
2. Being in this heightened vigilant state takes a lot of energy. As does masking who we are or our voices (those with ADHD know this well).
3. There are systemic, culture, power and unconscious bias layers and dynamics at play that undermine women & minority group's sense of safety in sharing their voices.
4. Our upbringing also has an influence on how we show up at work. Most women are raised to be warm, agreeable, conscientious and collaborative. The OCEAN personality model in psychology demonstrates that female-identifying/women are higher in conscientiousness, agreeableness and, for some, neuroticism. It all comes back to our brain doing it's job: keeping up safe.
5. Many individuals, particularly busy leaders, do not practise good facilitation or inclusive meeting practices.
6. It is not up to the individual to create psychological safety in teams or workplaces. Individuals can take actions to feel safer, however a larger responsibility falls to the workplace culture and leadership practices.
👋 Feel free to reach out if you're curious about learning more about this or other solutions to help solve some of the complex workplace problems that prevent people from showing up as their best.
