awareness@work 6 – July 15, 2020
 
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Placing the Horse in Front of the Cart

Written by: Carolyn V. Coarsey. Ph.D.

July 15, 2020


I am excited about being a part of changing traditional ways of thinking and bias with “proving” that it is good to be good.

-Lisa Swartzwelder, Director, Shuttle Operations and Flight Administration

Fortune 500 Specialty Retailer

The intention of the Foundation’s new series awareness@work is to shed light on how leaders within business organizations today are responding to those impacted by a crisis in the workplace. Whether one person, (customer, employee, family member) or a group of people are experiencing trauma, many organizations are initiating change in how they respond.

   Awareness of how the needs of distressed people can be met within the context of the workplace has risen dramatically with the evolution of Care and Special Assistance Teams throughout the world. Once cautioned against approaching a distressed survivor due to concerns over liability, many companies today encourage employees to contact them without fear, expressing sorrow and thereby showing true compassion toward the impacted individual.

    This new series features comments by program leaders as to the changes they are experiencing and challenges for the future of their programs. Lisa Swartzwelder, Director, Shuttle Operations and Flight Administration of 

a Fortune 500 Specialty Retailer addresses questions about how she is personally experiencing the shift in awareness in her professional life.


CVC: Since you first started your work involving humanitarian assistance in the workplace, what changes have you noticed in how people are responding when trauma or any suffering takes place? 

LS: I’ve experienced a shift in the prioritization to learn and exercise proven compassionate response methods that systematically align our organizations’ values and principles assuring that people come first. Our responders are empowered and have confidence in what we know as “doing the right thing”. We have become human in our human services response. 

 

CVC: To what do you attribute any positive changes?

LS: I value the families, the survivors who have courageously given back by sharing their experiences so organizations know what to do and what not to do. I attribute positive change to those who focus their energy on the heart and science of helping others; the Family Assistance Education and Research Foundation and all those who honor the fallen and their families with research based response and education mediums to inform, train and exercise. Also so important is the growth of the Care Team network around the world. Like-hearted and trained professionals have cauterized gaps in response standards. And, provides access with cultural knowledge and sensitivity.

 

CVC: Where do you see the greatest challenges going forward as we try to help companies respond from compassion instead of fear of lawsuits and/or questions about increasing liability by employee response?

LS: I see opportunities in partnering with cross functions such as Legal, Finance and Risk Management with providing value equations for Human Services Response™. By interpreting the value of caring for people to various disciplines both in hard and soft costs, we will transform the anecdotal to analytics. We will be able to clearly define the financial and reputational costs of not deploying a compassionate response. We know that when families are immediately and compassionately cared for in the absence of barriers, they can start their healing journey. Human Services Response™ will transform this mantra of compassion into the driving budget line item that prioritizes where an organization focuses its resources and money. 

 

CVC: Is there anything else you want to say about the need for change?

LS: When I am leading change, it is onerous on me to thoroughly understand and put myself in the shoes of my audience. I can empower with collaboration, filling tool belts with resources, maps, technology, checklists that speak their language. I am excited about being a part of changing traditional ways of thinking and bias with “proving” that it is good to be good.

 

The Paradigm Shift


I’ve experienced a shift in the prioritization to learn and exercise proven compassionate response methods that systematically align our organizations’ values and principles assuring that people come first.

-Lisa Swartzwelder

 

Experienced practitioners of the Human Services Response™ models, like Lisa have lived the change that survivors of traumatic events have ushered in overall the past several years. As survivors speak out, laws have come about and changes in protocol have resulted—and yet there are still challenges.

 

Real change will come only from within; laws and regulations are useful, but sadly easy to flout (mock or show disdain).

-Jane Goodall, Primatologist and Anthropologist

 

In the 2009 crash of Continental Flight #3407, February 12, all forty-nine people on board the aircraft died when the aircraft crashed into a house during landing. The family members of the fiftieth victim, Doug Wielinski, who died when the plane hit his house destroying all its contents, were treated differently from those who were on the airplane. Five years after the crash, Karen Wielinski finally got her day in court when she and her four daughters presented their case. Doug’s death and his family’s subsequent law suit resulted in an amendment to the federal guidelines which govern who is entitled to receive services following a crash. Today, all people who are impacted by the crash, would be be treated equally.

 

Research as to the distress experienced by survivors of traumatic stress is needed to inform processes and procedures in advance of the way a family like Doug’s was treated. This would prevent unnecessary harm done—indeed the horse would be leading the cart, instead of the reverse. While the 1996 Aviation Disaster Family Assistance Act covered all on the flight—the family of the “One on the Ground”, as Karen’s heartfelt book is named, suffered well beyond the loss of Doug and their family home.

 

…we will transform the anecdotal to analytics. We will be able to clearly define the financial and reputational costs of not deploying a compassionate response.

-Lisa Swartzwelder

 

Future research involving survivors of various types of traumatic losses, multiple industries, on an international level will lay the basis for future best practice. The Foundation has joined with Louisiana State University to create the Family Assistance Education & Research Institute (FAERI) for purposes of conducting and sharing academic research. Lisa is on the Business & Industry Advisory Board.

 

I am excited about being a part of changing traditional ways of thinking and bias with “proving” that it is good to be good.

Lisa Swatzwelder 


For more about the Foundation and our programs, please contact Cheri Johnson, cheri.johnson@fafonline.org or visit us at fafonline.org.

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