How do safety dynamics work during ethics training? How can safety be threatened and what can be done to foster an atmosphere of safety? In order to explore these questions, we analyzed a critical incident in which safety was under pressure during a military ethics training course, according to both the trainers and the participants of the course. By using the four-factor model we analyzed safety dynamics in a broad sense, taking into account the perspectives of the participants and the trainers, the group process, the relation with the course objective and the specific military context.
We consider two issues for the discussion. First, we go into the safety paradox, which involves a tension between honesty and openness. Second, we discuss how to deal with situations where safety is threatened during ethics training courses.
The safety paradox
Existing research acknowledges the importance of safety in dialogical, reflective and interactive approaches to ethics training (Knapp and Sturm
2002; Abma et al.
2009; Wortel and Bosch
2011; Stolper et al.
2012; van der Dam
2012). The experience of an atmosphere in which participants feel free to share opinions and feelings, even if these contradict the point of view of the majority of the participants is considered to be valuable.
Safety can be regarded as a precondition for dialogue and reflection as it creates room for a more in-depth approach to the majority viewpoint and room to rethink this viewpoint and to appreciate the views held by others. Reflecting on different insights and values may lead to new and broader insights. In light of the course objective, dealing constructively with disagreement by using a reflective and dialogical approach to the differences and disagreements (e.g. asking questions to better understand the view of the other instead of stating and arguing for one’s own position’), again may also have the result that it contributes to experiencing more safety (Widdershoven and Molewijk
2010). As such, differences of opinions are valuable for ethics training courses. Homogeneity of opinions may initially create safety within groups (Dixon
1994), but at the same time homogeneity may also create blind spots and ‘group think’ (Argyris
1990).
The critical incident described above supports the idea that safety can indeed ‘be destroyed in an instant through a negative response to an act of vulnerability’ (Edmondson and Lei
2014, p. 38). Our results show that safety dynamics can be paradoxical: The course objective invites participants to engage in dialogue and reflection and to be vulnerable and honest about one’s own considerations. Yet, the case shows that honesty is not only a requirement for, but can also be a threat to safety. Being honest implies expressing different perspectives and values. However, honesty can result in a clash of values and make it more difficult for participants to be open towards other perspectives and underlying values. As a consequence safety may decline and be threatened. A group which is able to deal productively with this safety paradox can develop and come to a group phase of increased and more in-depth trust, as well as a greater willingness to work together closely, to open up and to learn (Remmerswaal
2013).
In the heat of the moment, it seems that neither the trainers, nor the participants, clearly identified the situation in the group as an example of a clash of values. Instead of enabling an open investigation of different values, the presentation of the case and the reaction of the participants resulted in a confrontation of viewpoints. Providing space for feelings of vulnerability, inequality or even reluctance (Weidema et al.
2011) is not self-evident; rather it demands time, courage and moral competence. The ability to identify a situation on the spot as an example of a clash of values and the willingness to understand the perspective of participants with different values seems to presuppose that participants are able to reflect on their own opinions, to examine contradicting opinions and react to each other with curiosity rather than debate and defensive behavior.
When participants experience a lack of safety in the group, the trainer can be left with the feeling that all sorts of things have gone wrong; that they have not performed well as a trainer or that perhaps it was ‘simply’ a difficult participant or a difficult group. A different approach would be to view this setting as active, both in terms of interaction and group dynamic, with the group development process being in full swing and the trainer having the responsibility and possibility to support this process. This requires knowledge and skills in interaction and group dynamics. As such, safety dynamics, including situations which may seem threatening to the experience of safety, can be viewed as an ongoing process and as an opportunity to work on the objective of ethics training courses rather than as a problem to achieve this. In the following section we will examine how safety might be fostered in the here-and-now.
Dealing with situations where safety is threatened
Situations during an ethics training in which safety is experienced as threatened by a number of participants can be challenging and disturbing. Sometimes trainers might be surprised or overwhelmed by such situations; they have a program to follow and limited time to reflect on situations in the here-and-now. More importantly, they may lack a clear strategy on how to tackle a situation in which safety is threatened.
While there are no guarantees in terms of results or success, Smith and Berg argue that the key may be not to learn how to avoid these situations but rather to learn how to progress and avoid remaining stuck in these situations (Smith and Berg
1987). Since fostering moral competence is the main objective of many ethics training courses, situations such as described above might provide an opportunity to exercise moral competence at that very moment. The critical incident may be viewed as a concrete example of a situation where different perspectives and values collide. As such, this challenging situation can be seen as desirable. It may provide an opportunity for learning in the here-and-now (van Staveren
2007; Schruijer
2016).
Learning in the here-and-now attempts to integrate interaction, actual behavior by participants and reflection on underlying values. How can this be achieved in practice? How to use a situation as an opportunity to deal productively with the situation and work on the objective of the course at the same time?
Learning from situations where safety is threatened is well known in the tradition of the Socratic dialogue, a dialogical method often used during ethics training courses. At any time within the dialogue the facilitator or participants can propose a ‘time out’ in order to direct the attention of the group to any problems that may have arisen which prevents participants from focusing on the moral inquiry within the dialogue (Heckmann
1981; Loska
1995; Saran and Neisser
2004). For example, it may be that a participant is upset with the way the dialogue has developed; the group may have lost its way and need to review the structure or content of the dialogue. This is referred to as a ‘meta-dialogue’, which can be called for at any time (Boers
2003, p. 79). Within the meta-dialogue the actual situation in the group becomes the case for the moral inquiry (for as long as the meta-dialogue takes).
The idea of a time out or a meta-dialogue in the tradition of the Socratic dialogue is similar to the ‘disruption postulate’, in the methodology of TCI (Boers
2003). This disruption postulate implies that participants are invited to state when they are no longer able to continue the moral inquiry of the training or Socratic dialogue because of disruptions, tensions or intense emotions (Boers
2003, p. 84; see also Cohn
1976). Such an approach attempts to value differences, and conflicts between values among participants as opportunities to investigate these conflicts in the here-and-now. Such a time-out may be regarded as a moment which demands effort but an effort which is worthwhile (Wierdsma
1999, p. 130).
Trainers can use an intervention such as a meta-dialogue, or address a specific theme to work with, fitting to the situation. TCI can help to define a theme, in line with the development of a specific group. In the case described above, that could have been: ‘how can we deal constructively with other perspectives and conflicting values in this group?’. By addressing this theme, based on a TCI-analysis, all the participants are invited to share their experiences and their point of view on the issue that is at stake (Cohn
1976; Schneider-Landolf et al.
2009).
To overcome challenges and tensions of the learning process, such as a safety paradox, scholars have addressed the importance of creating a climate of support (Winnicot
1986). Creating a climate a climate of support may be fostered by paying attention to relevant structures or procedures. For instance, procedures indicate step by step how exactly participants will be working together to facilitate contributions from all participants. The mutual influence of structure on safety and process, in opposition to: chaos, unsafety and stagnation, is often stressed (Cohn
1976, p. 134). Specifically, for groups facing crisis phases, that may imply a risk of participants pulling out, supporting procedures may assist in reducing anxieties and feelings of unsafety (Cohn 1
976; Schneider-Landolf et al.
2009).
While the trainers did sense that the critical incident described above was an important situation, they did not create time and space at that specific moment to discuss the situation in the here-and-now. Obviously, taking time and creating space immediately may not always be possible; neither will it always lead to the desired results. Nevertheless, we argue that it is important for trainers of ethics courses to learn to recognize these moments in which safety is at stake. Almost intuitively they will have to decide whether or not to create time and space to explicitly discuss a situations in which safety is at stake within the group. This can be described as the competence of a trainer to understand how different factors distinguished in the TCI approach, that is; individual characteristics, group dynamics, the course objective and the context are at play with regard to a specific situation. Moreover, the trainer should be able to make integrate experiences, emotions and thoughts in an intuitive hunch. Cohn refers to this competence as ‘trained intuition’ (Cohn
1976). This intuition may be strengthened when trainers regularly take time to reflect on safety dynamics in during training courses and analyze the situation in terms of the four factors.