Creating Caring Work Cultures

The subject of care is familiar to us all. We may have loved ones who receive professional care; we ourselves care for our pets, friends, the planet; more and more we are encouraged to practice self-care. But what does it mean to care in the context of work? Are those concepts even compatible?

Inclusive Journalism Cymru’s main aim is to support our members through providing opportunities for marginalised journalists in Wales and creating a more accessible industry. We have outlined this in our Theory of Change, and demonstrated this through various activities, such as giving a platform to underrepresented voices, helping to steer Welsh Government policy, and most recently empowering members through our Network Weavers scheme.  

You could say, then, that care is already woven into the fabric of our organisation. If we didn’t care we wouldn’t exist. But feeling like you care, or simply operating from that intention, is different from actually practising care more formally and putting care-filled policies in place.

That is why, as Co-Director, I signed up to take part in Rising Arts Agency’s Caring Work Cultures training. This was a four-week course offering experience-based insights into creating more caring work environments, amidst the current poly-crisis which includes deep structural inequalities and an epidemic of burnout. It felt important to acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers and to demonstrate that we’re committed to continuous improvement and growth. 

Through discussions and exercises I was able to reflect on where we were already demonstrating care, where we might be falling short, and gain clarity on where to direct our energies in the future. 

Here’s what I learned.

Being in a leadership position for a care-based organisation, it’s easy to forget your own needs. Especially when you’re dealing with marginalised folk and painfully aware of how damaging the media industry – and indeed our society as a whole – has the potential to be. Seeing the problems that exist, and having the agency and resources to provide solutions, it’s tempting to focus all your efforts on the people you’re trying to help and forgo your own boundaries in the process. 

This, however, is unsustainable. Being vulnerable and sharing the more challenging aspects of your life is incredibly powerful and can bring you closer to the people you work with. Rather than showing weakness, it actually strengthens relationships and sparks empathy, also dispelling the myth that if you’re in charge you must have your s*** sorted (not true in the slightest!) 

We were taught that a good place to start is to create personal profiles / access riders and invite the whole team to fill them in. By creating the framework, and making it clear that they’re for everyone, it means the whole team is treated from the same place of care and has their voices heard.

One question we were asked is, how do you want your organisation to be perceived? How do you want employees or partners to feel when they work for you? It’s important to remember that cultures are created, and even though we can’t control everything, those of us in leadership positions have the power (and responsibility) to influence these living organisms to ensure that value and care flows in equal directions. 

This should begin during the recruitment phase. Apart from encountering your outward facing work and online presence, this will be the first stage in which people will experience your work culture. From using clear, accessible language in your job ad, to being transparent about the interview process, there are many easy to fix details that will make a world of difference and will help attract people who might otherwise not apply. (In fact we published our inclusive recruitment guide last summer which goes into this in more detail.)

Changing smaller details is important, but so is stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. A really helpful exercise was to reflect on the different areas in which we demonstrate care: everything from our branding to our power structures. Where do our good intentions show up and put into practice? Where are they a little vaguer? 

For us I realised that care is evident in the stories we tell (we were built to care about marginalised journalists) and the way that our organisation is set up (three co-directors, all decisions are mutually agreed, and we regularly invite our members to feed in to these discussions).

Work is just one facet of someone’s life. There is so much more going on behind the scenes: behind the job title is a rich, complex human, and behind that is an inescapable system of societal inequalities and environmental factors. Though it can be more relaxing sometimes to have a break from day to day life to focus on our projects, it’s essential that we view employees in the context of their backgrounds, needs and circumstances. Creating the space where people can share the things they’re carrying will lessen the risk of misunderstanding and conflict, and help the whole team return to the grounded notion that at the end of it all, each other’s wellbeing has to be a priority. 

Considering contexts is especially relevant to us as we are focusing on marginalised demographics. All our members have experienced barriers in the journalism industry in some way, be it institutional racism or unsafe workplaces. There have been so many instances where we are working with talented, creative individuals with brilliant ideas who have struggled due to the industry being inaccessible i.e. favouring a specific type of person. Being aware of these factors and asking yourself the question, as a leader, what small thing can I do to counteract these struggles? What subtleties do I need to be aware of?

It’s tempting to imagine that once we implement more care into our workplaces everyone will be happy and it’ll all run smoothly. Unfortunately this isn’t realistic. Sometimes people’s needs clash. Sometimes personalities clash. Disagreement and conflict are unavoidable. But what we can control is how we respond to these tensions. Are there ways you can make everyone feel heard whilst also making clear that compromise is necessary? Can you be more flexible in your approaches, so as to make way for the needs which are most present?

Trust here is key. We need to trust each other, that we will both have the bravery to voice our needs and the compassion to make space for others’. We need to trust that even if tension or conflict arises, there is a way to resolve it where everyone is heard. We need to trust that perfection can often be the enemy of the good, that even though we strive towards a better future it doesn’t mean we are immune to mistakes. In fact, acknowledging when things have gone wrong and committing to repairing the situation offers everyone a chance to learn and can therefore be a valuable part of the process.

It’s important that leaders set the tone for dealing with conflict. Say, for example, a disagreement arises in a meeting. This is a good opportunity to demonstrate to the rest of the team how to navigate these tricky spots. Do you shut people down and exploit your structural power? Or do you make sure everyone is heard and find a middle ground?

• Create personal profiles / access riders for all Directors and Network Weavers, presenting and sharing them amongst the team. (Check out our version here). As well as forming stronger connections, this may help us be clearer with our boundaries as directors to better protect our time and energy.
  
• Think of ways for the team to stay connected as we are all remote. This could be through making sure that we organise in-person meet ups throughout the year, or checking in more regularly and carving the time to catch up socially.
• Consider building in paid individual reflection time (e.g. one hour per month) as well as shared reflection time to talk more about big picture stuff, inviting honest reviews and suggestions. Include reflection and evaluation in future funding bids.
• Develop accessible, jargon free, aesthetically pleasing policy documents to share with anyone who works with us e.g. “Our Manifesto of Care”. This could include the ways we enact care in our organisation, how we deal with conflict, guidelines on our ethics, communication styles, and much more.
• Work on visualising our organisational structure i.e. drawing a diagram of everyone’s roles and mapping how care is transferred and in which directions. It could be, for example, that someone demonstrates care through scheduling meetings, someone else does through organising birthday gifts. Notice where there are more arrows pointing: is there someone who is giving much more than they’re receiving? Could there be ways to redress this unbalance?

• RadHR’s library of radical policies
• Care Collaboratory’s online zine on creating care in journalism
• MAIA’s article on growing infrastructures of care
• Psychological Safety from the New Ways of Working Playbook

If you’ve been inspired to embed more care into your workplace, Rising Arts are running their next Caring Work Cultures training this April. Book your place here.