Creating the Conditions for Advocacy

This is the third in a four-part series exploring advocacy as part of everyday professional practice. In my last newsletter, I explored how we can make concerns clearer through conversations, documentation and thoughtful messaging.

Even the clearest message can go nowhere if people do not feel able to raise it, or if what they raise is not taken seriously. So this week, I want to turn our attention to the conditions around advocacy, and particularly the role leaders and supervisors play in creating them.

We often encourage people to speak up.

Raise concerns early. Ask questions. Challenge respectfully. Let someone know if something does not seem right.

Concerns might relate to:

• increasing caseloads and work extending beyond paid hours

• staffing or resources affecting the quality of service

• insufficient supervision or support for complex work

• a client care issue that has been raised before but remains unresolved.

These are reasonable things to raise. But encouraging people to speak up is only part of the equation.

What happens when they do?

The response they receive is very likely to shape their willingness to raise any issues or concerns again.

This is why advocacy cannot rely on individual confidence or courage alone. We also need workplaces where raising concerns is valued and actively encouraged.

Psychological safety helps make advocacy possible

Amy Edmondson describes psychological safety as a shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking (Edmondson, 1999).

In practice, this means being able to ask a question, acknowledge uncertainty, offer an idea, disagree respectfully, or raise a concern without unreasonable fear of embarrassment, rejection, or other negative interpersonal consequences.

This does not mean everyone agrees.

It does not mean every concern will result in change.

And it does not mean avoiding difficult conversations, performance expectations or professional accountability.

In fact, psychologically safe teams can still have high standards and robust conversations.

The difference is that questions, concerns, and respectful challenge can be brought into the conversation rather than kept out of it.

That is important for advocacy because many concerns begin with someone being prepared to say:

• I am not sure this is working.

• I am seeing something that concerns me.

• I think we need to look at this differently.

• I need some help with this.

If saying those things carries too much interpersonal or professional risk, important information may not be raised.

Deep listening is part of managing risk

Safe Work Australia also identifies consultation with workers as an important part of identifying and managing psychosocial hazards.

Psychological safety helps create the conditions for people to raise concerns. What they raise can also provide important information about risks, pressures and workplace conditions that may need attention.

For leaders, the task is to deeply listen, consider what the concern is telling us, and work out who is responsible for responding.

Our response sends a message

As leaders and supervisors, we may not always be able to provide the answer someone wants.

• A workload cannot necessarily be changed immediately.

• Additional funding may not be available.

• A decision may sit with someone else.

• There may be other organisational constraints we cannot change ourselves.

But we can influence what happens when someone brings a concern to us.

Sometimes our first response is more important than having an immediate solution.

We can:

• thank the person for raising the issue

• ask questions to understand what they are seeing

• resist becoming defensive or explaining the problem away too quickly

• clarify what is within our authority and what needs to go elsewhere

• help them navigate their priorities

• explain what will happen next

• come back to the person when we said we would.

Even when the answer is not the one someone hoped for, closing the feedback loop is important.

If we have raised an issue and never hear what happened, we are left wondering whether it went anywhere. If change is not possible, explaining why can still show that the concern was heard and considered.

Being heard is not the same as getting the outcome we want. But being heard makes it more likely that we will keep contributing what we know.

Supervision can help us prepare for advocacy

Sometimes we know something needs attention, but we are still working out what we think and how best to respond.

This is one of the important roles supervision can play. Supervision gives us a structured place to reflect, test our thinking and explore questions such as:

• What am I noticing?

• Is this an isolated situation or part of a pattern?

• What information do I have?

• Is there another perspective I need to consider?

• Is this primarily a clinical, interpersonal, operational, or systemic issue, or some combination?

• Who is in the best position to respond?

• What would be a proportionate next step?

A supervisor does not need to take over the concern or immediately solve it. They can help the supervisee make sense of what they are seeing and decide how best to proceed.

Good supervision can help us decide how best to raise a concern and what to do next.

Supervision can also support us to build our advocacy skills. Once we know what we want to say and can see that it is valid, the next step may be to build our confidence or skills in speaking up.

When workplace conditions need attention

When someone raises concerns about workload, limited support, unclear responsibilities or insufficient time to complete their work, the response cannot always be to help them manage the situation better.

Sometimes what they are highlighting is about the way work is designed, resourced or managed.

Safe Work Australia identifies high job demands, low job control, poor support and lack of role clarity among common psychosocial hazards, reinforcing the need to look at workplace conditions, not just how we manage them.

Employees closest to the work often see pressures early. Leaders can help bring this information together rather than leaving team members to repeatedly raise the same concerns.

This is where leaders may need to take what they are hearing further and advocate for change.

Depending on the issue, that might mean advocating for:

• realistic staffing and caseloads

• protected supervision time

• sufficient time for documentation and coordination

• appropriate administrative support

• professional development

• safer systems or processes

• resources needed to provide quality services.

This is not simply advocating for staff. It is advocating for the conditions needed to provide safe, effective and sustainable services.

Taking concerns further

The same three advocacy capabilities we have explored throughout this series apply to leadership too.

Confidence: Are we prepared to take difficult information upwards, even when we know the message may be uncomfortable?

Strategy: Who has the authority to influence the issue? What evidence will help? What is the right pathway for raising it? Is this the right time and forum?

Clear messaging: Can we translate what people are experiencing into information that helps decision-makers understand the implications for clients, quality, safety, service delivery, workforce sustainability, risk or resources?

For example: The team is overwhelmed may accurately describe what people are experiencing, but advocacy may become stronger when we can also show:

• what demands have changed

• how frequently the issue is occurring

• what impact it is having on client access or quality of care

• whether documentation, coordination or supervision is being affected

• what workforce impacts are emerging

• what has already been tried

• what decision or support is now being requested.

This is where the conversations and documentation explored in the previous newsletter become particularly useful. Individual experiences can help us notice an issue.

Examples and evidence can help us show why it requires attention.

Creating conditions where people keep speaking

Creating the conditions for advocacy does not mean that every concern can be resolved, or that leaders will always have the authority or resources to provide the outcome someone is seeking.

But how we respond still matters.

When someone raises a concern, we can consider:

• Have I listened and sought to understand the issue before responding?

• Have I explained what can happen next and what may not be possible?

• Does this need action within the team, or does it need to be taken further?

• Have I followed up so the person knows what happened?

These responses can influence whether people continue to bring forward concerns, questions and ideas.

Perhaps the question for those of us who lead, supervise or support others is:

When someone raises a concern with me, does my response make it more or less likely they will speak up next time?

Creating the conditions for advocacy means making it safe for concerns to be raised, responding thoughtfully when they are, and taking them further when action is needed beyond our own authority.

Want to read more?

In The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, Amy Edmondson explores why psychological safety matters for team learning, speaking up, and workplace performance. She examines how leaders can create environments where people feel able to ask questions, raise concerns, acknowledge mistakes, and challenge ideas without fear of negative interpersonal consequences.

References

• Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/266699

• Edmondson, A. C. (2019). The fearless organization: Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. Wiley.

• Safe Work Australia. (n.d.). Psychosocial hazards. Australian Government. https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/safety-topic/managing-health-and-safety/mental-health/psychosocial-hazards

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