5 Minutes on Creating A Brave Space

Many of us have been a part of a team process to create a safe space by establishing team agreements.

The whole team, the system, works together to develop rules for how they want to behave together. Here's a simple guide for creating team agreements: We've Got to Stop Meeting this Way.

But when we want to make our safe space a brave space it’s important to put extra emphasis on HOW we communicate with each other. For example:

Speak from your own experience using “I statements.”

Ask questions to understand the sources of disagreements.

I recommend teams develop communication guidelines together. This resources is a great example of communication guidelines for a brave space: Communication Guidelines for a Brave Space.

It might take several meetings to talk through and agree on the communication guidelines that best support a brave space on your team.

You can encourage your team to try them out and see how they work, giving yourselves a chance to tweak them to best support your work.

Once your team has developed their rules for how they want to behave together and agreed on communication guidelines for a brave space, there is one more step. You have to keep these rules and guidelines top of mind on your team.

Your team needs to actually practice living and embodying each of them.

One way to do that is by reviewing each new rule or guideline at team meetings.

The time spent reviewing them might lessen as they become more familiar, or increase when new team members join you.

Here’s one set of questions you can use following the Adaptive Action framework of what, so what and now what:

What does this Simple Rule mean to me? >> What does this Simple Rule mean to the team and our purpose?

So what are the ways I see this pattern in my work? >> So what are examples of when the team lives this Simple Rule?

Now what can I do to expand this pattern in my work? >> How can we all stay present to expanding this pattern in our team?

Are you ready to create a brave space on your team? Is it time for you to create or review your team agreements and communication guidelines? I hope this helps you take the next step.

Want to read about the difference between a safe space and a brave space? Keep reading HERE.