As a kid I would raise any concerns with my mum, who solved all problems. If this got my brother into trouble so much the better! However, as I got a bit older 'telling tales’ wasn’t seen as a positive thing. In adolescence, being a 'grass' was totally uncool and would make you very unpopular so best avoided. As an adult, the prevailing culture was that we 'mustn't grumble' and being stoic in the face of adversity was valued. So, entering the workplace and having professional responsibilities to raise concerns took some unlearning. But is raising concerns accepted as a normal part of our work and are we good at responding to people who raise them? 

In some organisations people raising concerns have been seen as disloyal malcontents who want to cause trouble and efforts made to silence and discredit them. But we also see those who persevere with raising concerns as heroes, but only when the things that have gone horribly wrong are publicly exposed.  Having model ‘Raising concerns’ policies and bold statements ‘welcoming concerns’ is not enough; our actions and workplace cultures need to reflect them. We all have a part to play, whether it is supporting colleagues to raise concerns or being open to receiving them. 

I’m committed to supporting open work environments where staff are expected and encouraged to raise concerns, and when they do, they are taken seriously. This contributes to overall safety and wellbeing and staff feel valued and respected. Easy to say. However, in the morning when I tumble outta bed and stumble to the kitchen and pour myself a cup of ambition, is that ambition to have a day filled with distressed or disgruntled colleagues queuing to raise concerns? Not really if I’m honest.

I do like problem solving though. What can be more motivating than a colleague bringing a problem and working together to find a solution to make things better? A student nurse once approached me raising concerns about moving and handling practices in a service where I had been in position for a few weeks. They were correct; the established practices were dangerous, and I hadn’t noticed! Working with the student, the wider team and a physio, safe practices were introduced. Success! Statues should be built in my honour and hoisted safely onto a pedestal in recognition of my inclusive and empowering leadership in response to this concern. However, I’ve previously failed miserably and dealt quite incompetently with other concerns.

In one organisation I worked, the computer system was central to everything we did. It was old, clunky, and not fit for purpose. My team members moaned about this constantly. Why did I have to be the receptacle for my team’s negativity about a computer system? Procuring millions of pounds of IT systems was not within my remit, skillset, or paygrade. My team accounted for less than 1% of users of this system and everyone in the organisation knew the system was not fit for purpose.  As far as I was concerned at the time, this was a well-known problem; rectifying this issue was not my job and there was nothing I could do. I was wrong. 

The team weren’t moaning and whinging, they were raising legitimate concerns about not being provided with the right tools to do their job. By doing nothing I inadvertently signalled to them was there no point raising any concerns with me as I didn’t care. I did care, but didn’t feel I could do anything. A more skilled leader did what I should have done; listened to their team’s concerns, created some local mitigation, collected examples of how the inadequate system was impacting on the work of the team; and escalated the issue. Eventually, work commenced to design a new system, but no thanks to me.

In another role, I needed to prioritise some unexpected time-critical work resulting in the abandonment of some of the ‘nice to do’ but not essential activities. This resulted in one of my team e-mailing me to express disappointment at me abandoning an activity they valued and had spent some time preparing for. Within minutes an email from another team member arrived with near identical wording about how devalued they felt at me letting them down.

My initial feelings were that they were unfairly conspiring against me - the lovely supportive and overworked nurse who had reasonably re-prioritised his work! How very dare they! But then I took a breath. Two members of a team supporting each other, talking through a negative experience, and agreeing action, isn’t a conspiracy, it’s professional and reasonable. The activity was the highest priority for both team members but wasn’t the highest priority for me at that time. The resolution was simple, a phone call to them both to apologise, explain and rearrange. Harmony restored! Perhaps I should have made the phone calls in the first place, would have saved time and upset. A colleague suggested that these people needed ‘stronger’ management as they had the audacity to challenge a decision of mine. I obviously disagreed. 

No one wants to be told they or their organisation are doing a bad job. But we sometimes get things wrong, and systems and processes can conspire to produce bad outcomes for people. We need to own this and never attribute the problem to the person raising it to protect reputations or because it’s inconvenient. Where things are not within our gift to resolve, we should appropriately escalate and provide feedback as to what is being done. It’s our moral and professional duty to ensure the safety of people who raise concerns and respond respectfully and openly. It’s not always easy. But history has shown us the alternative.