Psychological Safety in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

There are fewer industries as heavily tied into hierarchies as the Martial Arts community. The traditional, almost primal nature of these communities creates a divide in communication and safety between members of the same community. The need to create psychological safety is an essential component of creating a training environment where people feel free to express themselves.

First, let's define exactly what we mean by psychological safety before we tackle this issue - Amy Edmonson, a Professor of leadership at Harvard Business School, defines it as “an environment in which people believe that they can speak up candidly with ideas, questions, concerns, and even mistakes.” However, psychological safety is not a safe space where you can feel confident that your views won’t be challenged. This can be limiting and restrictive to efforts of creating a free-flowing, conducive environment for all participants, regardless of race, gender, or cultural background.

In our world where there are no ideal prototypes of what a successful leader looks like, there is a constant need to create an environment where new ideas are being introduced by different people from various perspectives. Studies have repeatedly shown improved performances in organizations that emphasize the importance of psychological safety. This model can only function when employees are free to speak their minds, without the fear of consequences looming over their heads. In this crazy, cancel-culture frenzy world, the slightest misinterpretation can be seen as the biggest offense - the Cheeto-fingered internet warriors are quick to jump on a chance to berate someone online, all while hiding themselves behind an anonymous username. This polarizes us and further fuels the disconnect between a person’s genuine intentions and what they meant.

This attempt to fix a faucet in a burning building detracts from the issue at hand as we fail to identify the problem. Rather, it does the opposite. In failing to identify the problem, people are punished for refusing to step on eggshells in this falsely ‘inclusive environment’ we’ve created. In order to truly solve this problem, we must first protect employees and students from the erratic canceling that is plaguing organizations everywhere. People must be free to speak up with no consequences for feeling the way that they do, as this ultimately benefits the organization.

This ties back into the martial arts community, in particular, the Brazilian Jiu-jitsu community. In the pretense of being one of the handfuls of legitimate martial arts, the BJJ community is in some ways more susceptible to fostering a psychologically unsafe environment as the leaders are idolized and worshipped as exemplars of ‘true’ and ‘real’ Martial artists. Regardless of how true that may be, this Hero worshiping attitude can more often than not create a world where the leaders at the top are isolated from the thoughts and opinions of the rest of the community on how things are run. These countless missed opportunities of cultivating an inclusive gym culture, when ignored over a long period of time can create a severe disconnect and split between the people that run the gym, the people that work for them, and the members that attend the gym. A hierarchy based upon the color of a belt around your waist can be great at distinguishing skill level at a particular fighting discipline, but can also create a worship culture that can lead down dark paths when power is left unchecked and unquestioned.

Martial Arts academy owners must open up conversations in the workplace, not just with their employees but also with their members, about uncomfortable topics. The goal is never to convince the other side, but to listen, and to positively act upon the feelings of those around you. In order for members to feel psychologically and physically safe at the dojo, they must feel as though they are valued members of the community. At the same time, this is not to say that members of the community feel as though they are in a ‘safe space’ where their feelings can’t get hurt. The reality is actually quite the opposite. Tough conversations need to take place for the current landscape to change. There must be a two-way communication stream for these conversations to be truly beneficial. The leaders at the top must develop an organization that realizes the benefits of diversity through inclusion, members and employees must also understand that the goal of these conversations is to lead to enforceable policies down the line.

The thought of a recreational member of a gym freely approaching an elite black belt can seem like a daunting task. However, the growth and learning that come out of these interactions can be invaluable to both parties. Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of learning from John Combs, a highly ranked and accomplished black belt instructor and competitor, outside of a formal jiu-jitsu school environment. John’s gesture of allowing me the privilege of training at his home broadened my perspective of what's possible with a ‘walls up, doors open’ approach to communicating. My growth achieved in those few months of learning directly from the source had been invaluable - my jiu-jitsu had grown at an exponential rate simply through my close proximity to an extremely high level of training and instruction. Hopefully, I was able to offer John something through my rudimentary approach to jiu-jitsu and help him see things through an untrained eye. At the very least, I was able to provide a different perspective and that, in itself, can be a game-changer in human communication. The potential of what Martial Arts academies look like and how they operate is unlimited.

By Sanjay Nambiar