Svend Brinkmann: This is the greatest challenge in the world of work

The Danes have been under pressure for many years. If we want to find peace of mind and serenity, we need to put the idea to rest of being “the whole person” when we are at work and find our way back to what will truly do us good: Safety.

Those are the words of Svend Brinkmann, Professor of Psychology at Aalborg University, who recently held a presentation for the members of Finansforbundet in mid-September in Copenhagen.

“We have worshipped the narrative of the art of change and lifelong learning for 25 years. We have understood this message. So, now is the time to maintain some of the viable structures that have been built, and which many people appreciate,” says Svend Brinkmann, indicating that “psychological safety” has become quite a buzzword, but not without reason, he maintains.

“It’s because people have trouble seeing a professional life that is only concerned with burning platforms and the act of juggling multiple activities simultaneously. The concept of disruption has disappeared completely, along with other similar concepts. It has had its time, and now we need to consolidate matters and establish appropriate working frameworks.”

Brinkmann had his public breakthrough in 2014 with his bestseller ”Stand Firm”, which challenges the increasing focus on self-improvement and self-realisation. Several bestsellers have since followed, for which he has received various awards.

Since “Stand Firm” came out, his messages to slow down, stop chasing the new and latest trends and practice saying no to demands, tasks and expectations, have made him a central voice in the debate of how we can live our lives in a more meaningful way; separating our job more from who we are as persons.

The risk of a void

Roughly speaking, we need to distinguish more between Private Svend and Professional Svend in contrast to being “ourselves” in everything we do all the time.

“Rather than saying the whole person comes to work, I suggest we say only one third of the person comes to work. This is the third I use to sell my time and skills in return for employment income, and then you can hope that the time spent working – which is relatively many hours over a whole life – has been used in a meaningful way. In case it is not meaningful, you can always look at it at arm’s length and say ‘I have not sold all of me to get this. I find meaning in life in my spare time at the handball club, out in the garden, with my grandchildren, whatever’,” says Svend Brinkmann.

The danger, he says, is that if you put your whole self into your work, it will leave you with a great void when the day comes when – voluntarily or especially involuntarily – you no longer have that job. The risk of seeing your life as unsuccessful and a failure increases if your approach to work is that it must make sense all the time and you need to put yourself into everything at work.

Less competition, more safety

This brings him back to “psychological safety”.

“A lot of research within psychology indicates that human beings function best when they are safe. Ten to fifteen years ago, many were saying that all we needed was a burning platform to set creativity going and so on. There is not much evidence to support this. In fact, people take fewer chances if they don’t feel safe and fear being kicked out next.”

“It is almost like, the safer people are, the better they collaborate, because there is no need for them to promote themselves at the cost of the other employees or at the cost of the group. I would almost go as far as saying that the more you can reduce competition within an organisation, workplace or a corporation, the better,” says Svend Brinkmann.