Prof Susan Fairley and Dr Jane Sturgess join us in this episode to discuss how to create a workplace where you can handle difficult conversations and not shy away from failure.

Episode Highlights

[07:07] The Workplace and the Individual

• There should be a system at work that allows other people to challenge someone who is not doing the right thing.

[10:08] Improving the System on an Organisational Level

• There needs to be an expectation of making communication easier and more respectful.

[14:22] Get Juniors to Speak Up

• Calling each other by first names reduces the hierarchy between colleagues.

[19:22] Having Difficult Conversations and Reducing Defensiveness

• Sometimes, the kind thing to do is to have a difficult conversation with a colleague.
• When a leader doesn't listen up, the members will not be able to speak up.

[22:57] How to Face Difficult Conversations for Leaders

• Remove the emotion and listen to the content.
• Seek coaching and psychological supervision.

[26:47] Helping a Person Receive Feedback

• H3: head, heart and hand.
• POIPS: permission, observed, impact, pause and solutions. 
• Advocacy-inquiry: understanding the other person’s opinion before intervening with your own perspective. 

[32:17] Incident Reporting

• Institutions that report incidents have lower risk and better safety outcomes. 

[39:27] Good Practices in Speaking Up and Providing Feedback

• Staff that feel valued, engaged, safe and empowered to speak up and have difficult conversations directly correlates with patient mortality.

[42:24] Addressing Issues Around Incident Reporting

• The first issue is not recognising a problem as significant enough to need reporting.
• The second issue is it takes time to write an incident report.

[47:14] Building Trust

• Every gesture and action we take speaks volume.

[51:41] How to Start Speaking Up

• Having a coach, clinical supervision and mentor is powerful.
• Unless you practise something, you won’t get good at it.

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Podcast Links

• Permission to Thrive CPD membership
• Medical Protection, Dental Protection
• Complaints and How to Survive Them
• E78: Preparing to Fail Well
• E80: What to Do When You Make a Mistake
• E82: Surviving the Process
• Susan’s Website
• Jane’s LinkedIn
• Visit the website for a full list of helpful resources

Mentioned in this episode:

Work Well Live

FrogFest Virtual 2025