Giving Teams Consistent Space for Both Joy and Grief

Jan 4

Fresh Ideas from Us

In our personal lives and world events, if you’re anything like us, 2023 brought its share of grief our way. Whether it’s losing loved ones, managing health concerns (including mental health!), or financial hardship—we each have so much coming our way from all sides, and so do our colleagues. When we (Michael and Viva) founded Liberation Labs, we did so with our shared values in mind: compassion, clarity, and joy.

Grief and joy are often seen as two ends of a broad spectrum, but the reality is that for most of us, they’re inextricably linked in the human experience. And workplaces are made up of, you guessed it, humans!

And those three Liberation Labs values mentioned above? They can also be valuable tools in helping your team learn how to become an emotionally-aware, trauma-informed workplace that creates intentional space for both joy and grief to co-exist.

Here are a few examples of how:

Compassion: Consider reduced workloads for people directly impacted by genocide or crisis. Or for those who suddenly take on new caregiving responsibilities.
Clarity: Clearly communicate decisions—and the “why” behind them—to all employees regardless of their position.
Joy: Celebrate personal and professional wins in standing meetings or Slack/Teams, no matter how small.