Campus Dining Today - NACUFS 2023 - 32

" Some people hear 'circle of safety,' " Dunsmoor said,
" And they think that means we never hold people
accountable; everyone gets away with everything, we
never have hard conversations, and we pretend that
everything is fine-which is not true. "
Instead, a circle of safety saves people from
expending time and energy " watching their back " -
protecting themselves from their own teammates, he
explained. This frees people up to invest more fully in
the goals of the organization.
One strategy for building trusting teams is ensuring
there is space and time for people to connect with
each other outside of work activities, Dunsmoor said,
responding to an audience member question.
" Sometimes we look at the bottom line and say, 'Well,
we have to get a lot of stuff done, so we have to
maximize every minute that we have people on the
clock,' " Dunsmoor said. " But research and science
shows that people are way more productive ... when
they are truly engaged. So, make time to build in
people having time to connect. "
The next principle encourages organizations to
" Study Worthy Rivals, " which harnesses the benefits
of competition, a powerful motivator, while avoiding
the aspects of competition that can be more
destructive than unifying. He said examining your
rivals can make their success a blueprint rather than
a threat. Asking ourselves who makes us insecure is
a good clue that that person may have something to
teach us.
" Competition implies a winner, which is a finite game
concept, but life doesn't have that, " Dunsmoor said.
" So how do we use the best parts of that competition
mindset? Getting out of the 'me-versus-you,' and into
a 'me-versus-who-I-was-yesterday' mindset, because
that's the real competition, so you start to focus on
improvements rather than a 'final score.' "
The next principle is " Prepare for Existential
Flexibility, " which means being prepared to make an
extreme pivot in the face of major challenges.
" With COvID, you all went through a really strong
existential flex over these past couple years, " Dunsmoor
observed. " You're probably doing some things today
that-had that never happened-would not be part
of your standard operating procedures. ... And so, the
question becomes-how do we prepare for the next
crisis without knowing what it's going to be? "
It may be another pandemic, or it could be weatherrelated,
technological, political, or some other
unforeseeable shift, he said.
" We have to ask, 'Are there doors that I can open and
look into that will further my just cause, that would
allow us to achieve our vision, but maybe in a different
way than we're doing right now?' " Dunsmoor said. " This
is like diversifying your approach. "
As examples, Dunsmoor cited Netflix, a company that
started out mailing rental videos and is now credited
with bringing streaming to the fore. In contrast, Kodak,
once a major innovator and the creator of color film,
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