Whenever I get the opportunity to present on the topic of my book: Beyond Self-Care: Leading a Systemic Approach to Well-being for Educators, I am consistently reminded how much fun and learning happens when people get together!

I was recently invited to speak at a learning event for Douglas College in Coquitlam BC for their Health Sciences department. When they asked if I could speak at a learning session before their holiday lunch, I first had to confirm that they knew this was not a light and fluffy wellness activity and they promised me that my topic and approach was exactly what they needed.

As we discussed the three parts of well-being, I could feel the connection in the room. As participants acknowledged that all three parts of well-being are needed, they began to feel that they were not alone in their hopes for the department. The presentation became the opportunity to collectively take a breath and open up to shared learning.

Sometimes with the topic of well-being, it feels like I am entirely responsible for my own well-being and if I am not well, it is some kind of a character flaw or lack of toughness or effort. That is not true, of course, but it feels that way because our traditional support strategies are set up with that assumption. Workplaces provide self-care advice (newsletters, videos, counselling even) to people who are struggling in situations that don’t fall solely into the “self” category but in “other” such as a toxic work environment or “system” such as an unmanageable workload.

Let’s work with what we have but move to strategies that more intentionally connect the well-being challenge to the solution. While we don’t need to toss out all of those beautiful newsletters or great Wellness Wednesday videos, we do need to make sure we do two things before we press send.

Acknowledge that you see and are willing to address all three parts of well-being in your workplace - self, other, & system.
Start matching the problems with the solutions.

One example of matching problems with solutions comes from a research study of principals and vice principals in British Columbia (Wang, 2022) that investigated psychological safety. “Of the survey items provided, school administrators felt that the hierarchical structure of the organization (system factor) contributed most to [their] feeling psychologically unsafe (41.7%)” (p. 44). When they were asked what they did when they felt psychologically unsafe they provided a list of coping strategies like talking with family/friends (other), talking with a confidant (other), or keeping silent (self).

All of the solutions were either in the self-care or the support from others category even though it was a systemic problem they were experiencing. If you are interested in reading the rest of this fascinating study the link is below. I think we often go towards self-care or care for others when the problem is a systemic one because they are the solutions we know better. The problem is that no matter how many friends you talk to or how often you stay silent it will never solve the systemic problem!

The good news is that if we start to look at systemic problems the systemic solutions are there. Systems are always changing so let’s design and re-design them together by matching the problems and solutions with courageous intention.

Are there some systemic challenges you would like to solve together? As always let’s keep the conversation going……would love to hear from you.

Psychological Safety of School Administrators: Invisible Barriers to Speaking Out

Wang, F. (2022). Psychological safety of school administrators: Invisible barriers to speaking out. A report from the research project “Subversive Leadership and The Art of War”, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Connect the well-being challenge to the solution

Fostering Belonging in Schools: The Learning Bar

The Challenge of Challenging