Creating a Workplace Environment that Encourages Authenticity, Vulnerability, and Psychological Safety

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, fostering an environment where employees feel safe to be their authentic selves is not just a lofty ideal but a strategic imperative. At Lumen Technologies, India, we’ve undertaken a comprehensive approach to cultivate such a culture, leveraging various principles and practices to ensure our employees can thrive in an atmosphere of authenticity, vulnerability, and psychological safety.

One of the foundational elements of our culture is the unwavering commitment to our purpose and mission. We are dedicated to “Unleashing the world’s digital potential” and igniting business growth by connecting people, data, and apps quickly, securely, and effortlessly. This clarity of purpose serves as a guiding star for our employees, providing them with a clear sense of direction and meaning in their work. It creates an environment where everyone understands the bigger picture and how their individual contributions matter.

Our cultural values of teamwork, trust, and transparency are integral to our organizational fabric. By embedding clarity, customer obsession, courage, a growth mindset, and allyship into everything we do, we create a workplace where open communication and collaboration are the norms. These values ensure that employees feel valued and respected, knowing that their voices will be heard and their perspectives considered. This openness is crucial for fostering an atmosphere of psychological safety, where individuals feel comfortable expressing their thoughts and ideas without fear of judgment or retribution.

Leadership at Lumen Technologies, India, is committed to embedding our cultural values throughout the organization. One such initiative is “Story Time” from our All Hands meetings, where leaders share Panchatantra fables and relate them to our culture themes. This storytelling approach helps employees connect with our values on a personal level and reinforces the importance of our cultural principles.

Under our Diversity and Inclusion charter, we embrace the IDEAS framework—Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Allyship, and Social Impact. This framework underscores our commitment to valuing and celebrating differences, ensuring fair and equal opportunities, supporting and empowering each other, and contributing to positive change in our communities. By prioritizing these principles, we create a workplace where diversity is not just accepted but celebrated, and where all employees feel a deep sense of belonging and respect.

Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) play a pivotal role in reinforcing our inclusive culture. The Women Empowered ERG fosters gender diversity and empowers women through mentorship and various development programs. The CSR ERG is dedicated to social responsibility initiatives, while the Pride ERG champions LGBTQ+ inclusion, ensuring a welcoming environment for all employees. These ERGs drive positive change, provide support networks, and create opportunities for professional growth and community engagement.

A key initiative that has significantly contributed to our culture of authenticity and vulnerability is Brene Brown’s Dare to Lead training program, which every employee at Lumen Technologies, India, has participated in. This program is designed to instill a culture of courageous leadership, enabling employees to rumble with vulnerability and demonstrate clear purpose and values. The training focuses on four teachable, measurable, and observable courage skill sets: engaging with vulnerability, embracing your values, fostering trust, and mastering resilience. Through this program, our employees have acquired the skills to confront risk, uncertainty, and difficult dialogues with courage, clarity, and empathy.

Recognizing the changing dynamics of the workplace, we’ve adopted a hybrid working model, requiring employees to come to the office only four days a month. This federated model, where each business unit decides its own mode of working, has enhanced productivity and employee satisfaction. It provides employees with the flexibility to balance their professional and personal lives, contributing to their overall well-being and sense of autonomy.

Promoting equity at the workplace is another cornerstone of our approach. We ensure that male and female employees receive equitable compensation and have taken deliberate steps to maintain pay equity over the years. This commitment to fairness extends beyond compensation, permeating all aspects of our workplace policies and practices.

Our Integrity Line allows employees to report complaints anonymously, creating a safe space to speak up. This open-door policy ensures that employees feel secure in voicing their concerns and know that their issues will be addressed without fear of retaliation. Additionally, our Employee Assistance Program provides counseling support on various matters, including mental and financial health, and we regularly conduct webinars and awareness sessions on well-being.

Promoting new ideas and encouraging innovation are also central to our culture. We create a culture of safe innovation by encouraging employees to create proof of concepts (POCs) and showcase them in large forums, regardless of success or failure. This approach introduces psychological safety and fosters an environment where taking risks and exploring new ideas are valued.

Setting clear expectations and goals helps reduce ambiguity among employees. By embracing failures as learning opportunities, we foster a culture where individuals are encouraged to take risks and innovate. Regularly expressing gratitude for team efforts and normalizing vulnerability are also crucial components of our organizational culture.

We have implemented a continuous two-way feedback mechanism, where employees receive and give feedback to their supervisors on a quarterly basis. This system ensures that communication flows in both directions, promoting a culture of transparency and mutual respect. Listening circles and skip-level connects further encourage employees to open up and share their thoughts and concerns without the constraints of traditional power dynamics and hierarchies.

In conclusion, creating a workplace environment that encourages authenticity, vulnerability, and psychological safety requires a multifaceted approach. At Lumen Technologies, India, we have embraced this challenge by embedding our core values into every aspect of our operations, from our purpose and mission to our diversity and inclusion initiatives, leadership training programs, and flexible working models. By doing so, we have created a culture where employees feel empowered to be their true selves, fostering innovation, collaboration, and sustained business growth.

Rashmi Nair is the Senior Director and HR Head of Lumen Technologies, India