1. CONTEXT Learning, Awareness, & Behavioral Change Experimentation, Risk-Taking, & Vulnerability Safety, Trust, Intimacy Ed Batista: Safety, Trust, Intimacy Slide 1 of 10 Initial Conditions www.edbatista.com/2010/03/safety.html

2. CONTEXT Learning, Awareness, & Behavioral Change Experimentation, Risk-Taking, & Vulnerability Safety, Trust, Intimacy Ed Batista: Safety, Trust, Intimacy Slide 2 of 10 Initial Conditions www.edbatista.com/2010/03/safety.html 1) Every groups experience is rooted in a set of initial conditions: How and why were we assembled? What will our first meeting be like? What will we discuss there? These initial conditions form the foundation for all subsequent layers of the group dynamic.

3. CONTEXT Learning, Awareness, & Behavioral Change Experimentation, Risk-Taking, & Vulnerability Safety, Trust, Intimacy Ed Batista: Safety, Trust, Intimacy Slide 3 of 10 Initial Conditions www.edbatista.com/2010/03/safety.html 2) The foundational qualities that define every group are the levels of safety, trust & intimacy: Safety = A belief that we wont get hurt. Trust = We mean what we say and we say what we mean. Intimacy = A willingness to make the private public.

4. CONTEXT Learning, Awareness, & Behavioral Change Experimentation, Risk-Taking, & Vulnerability Safety, Trust, Intimacy Ed Batista: Safety, Trust, Intimacy Slide 4 of 10 Initial Conditions www.edbatista.com/2010/03/safety.html 3) When safety, trust and intimacy are established, these qualities support the actions that lead to greater success as a group: experimentation, risk-taking and a willingness to be vulnerable.

5. CONTEXT Learning, Awareness, & Behavioral Change Experimentation, Risk-Taking, & Vulnerability Safety, Trust, Intimacy Ed Batista: Safety, Trust, Intimacy Slide 5 of 10 Initial Conditions www.edbatista.com/2010/03/safety.html 4) When we feel able to experiment, take risks and make ourselves vulnerable, our ability to learn, to increase our self- awareness (and our awareness of others) and to change our behavior in order to achieve our goals more effectively increases dramatically.

6. CONTEXT Learning, Awareness, & Behavioral Change Experimentation, Risk-Taking, & Vulnerability Safety, Trust, Intimacy Ed Batista: Safety, Trust, Intimacy Slide 6 of 10 Initial Conditions www.edbatista.com/2010/03/safety.html 5) The process of building one layer upon another occurs in a unique contextso in addition to asking whether learning and change are taking place, we also need to assess how the groups context supports (or inhibits) the development of the underlying layers in the group dynamic.

7. CONTEXT Learning, Awareness, & Behavioral Change Experimentation, Risk-Taking, & Vulnerability Safety, Trust, Intimacy Ed Batista: Safety, Trust, Intimacy Slide 7 of 10 Initial Conditions www.edbatista.com/2010/03/safety.html As we learn, become more aware (of ourselves and others), and change our behavior to achieve our goals more effectively… Learning, awareness and change become self-reinforcing norms in the group. Group members become more willing to experiment, take risks, and express more vulnerability. We value the importance of safety, trust and intimacy and act to enhance these qualities in the group. And we identify and seek to replicate initial conditions that support the development of these qualities in future groups.

8. CONTEXT Learning, Awareness, & Behavioral Change Experimentation, Risk-Taking, & Vulnerability Safety, Trust, Intimacy Ed Batista: Safety, Trust, Intimacy Slide 8 of 10 Initial Conditions www.edbatista.com/2010/03/safety.html So we need to ask... How will the groups initial conditions support or inhibit the establishment of safety, trust and intimacy? At each step of the groups subsequent development, are we increasing or decreasing the levels of these qualities? What behaviors in the the group dynamic support the development of these qualities? And what behaviors inhibit these qualities?

9. CONTEXT Learning, Awareness, & Behavioral Change Experimentation, Risk-Taking, & Vulnerability Safety, Trust, Intimacy Ed Batista: Safety, Trust, Intimacy Slide 9 of 10 Initial Conditions www.edbatista.com/2010/03/safety.html A final point regarding feedback: While excessive delicacy and indirectness inhibit learning, awareness and change, the degree of candor and directness in a group must be calibrated to the groups current levels of safety, trust and intimacy. Feedback attuned to these qualities can increase their presence in the group by stretching the groups capacity for candid and direct discussion. But feedback that fails to take these qualities into account can actually lead to less safety, trust and intimacy than before and undermine the groups ability to learn and change.

10. Slide 10 of 10 About Me about.edbatista.comabout.edbatista.com Professional I'm an executive coach, a change management consultant, and a Leadership Coach at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. I help individuals find professional fulfillment and develop their leadership and interpersonal skills; I help people work together more effectively as members of a team; and I help companies and nonprofits adapt their management practices and organizational culture to better fit their changing needs.Leadership Coach at Stanford's Graduate School of Business My work as a coach began after a 15-year career in management, during which I took two years off to earn an MBA at Stanford, and I've helped launch three new organizations. In addition to coaching and change management, I'm particularly interested in the intersection of organizational culture and social technology. Personal I've lived in San Francisco since 1990; I'm married to Amy Wright, a recovering corporate attorney-turned-law school librarian; and I'm passionate about listening to music (particularly jazz, but I love punk, blues and bluegrass as well), hiking throughout the Bay Area, and visiting New Orleans whenever possible.San FranciscomusichikingthroughouttheBayAreaNew Orleans What I Do services.edbatista.comservices.edbatista.com Put simply, I help individuals find professional fulfillment; I help people work together more effectively as members of a team; and I help companies and nonprofits adapt their management practices and organizational culture to better fit their changing needs. My coaching services are aimed at helping people be as fulfilled and as effective as possible in their professional lives. I work with individuals to assist them in unlocking their full potential, meeting new challenges, and developing their skills. People often find an executive coach a helpful resource when they're... Starting a new job Considering a new position or career Taking on new responsibilities Addressing areas for improvement Coping with a changing environment Simply trying to get unstuck I'd be happy to have an initial conversation to discuss your needs and how we might work together. Contact me at contact.edbatista.com.contact.edbatista.com Licensing: This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt this work, provided that 1) you attribute it to Ed Batista with a link to www.edbatista.com, and 2) if you alter or transform this work, you must distribute the resulting work under a similar or compatible license.Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 licensewww.edbatista.com