Gather At The Well: The Human-Centered Audit—Where Are You Now? - Lindsey Fuller

What if policies could actually feel like care? 💛

In this episode of Gather at the Well, Lindsey Fuller invites us to rethink how we show up for our teams. Through the policies we write and live by. Drawing from her own experience, Lindsey unpacks the evolution of her organization’s “corrective progression” policy, showing how even the trickiest processes can be reimagined as tools for growth, not punishment.

With heart and practicality, she introduces a simple but powerful framework that places every policy into one of three buckets: care, conditions, and corrections. You’ll hear why listening deeply, surveying your team, and designing policies rooted in trust can shift your culture from reactive to restorative.

Come for the insights, stay for the breathwork 🧘—this episode is a reminder that policies don’t have to be dusty documents. They can be living, breathing reflections of the kind of workplace we’re all trying to build.

Episode Highlights

• Understanding Corrective Progression (01:21)
• The Importance of Structure in Organizations (04:37)
• Implementing Corrective Progression Policies (10:01)
• Building Resilient Organizations (15:05)
• The Cost of Human-Centered Policies (20:57)
• Categories of Human-Centered Policies: Care, Conditions, and Corrections (25:05)
• Engaging Staff in Policy Development (31:36)

Affirmations: 

1. "One step at a time is enough for me."
2. "I am worthy of healing centered policies."
3. "We deserve policies that help not harm."
4. "I am brilliant."
5. "I can lead this effort."

Episode Shownotes: www.weareforgood.com/episode/humancenteredauditwhereareyounow

Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome to Gather at the Well
• 2:05 The Impact of Human-Centered Policies
• 4:47 Corrective Progression: A Better Approach
• 8:03 Healing vs. Punitive Leadership Practices
• 14:15 Beyond Policies: Building Sustainable Teams
• 21:49 Care, Conditions, and Corrections Framework
• 27:49 Creating Change Through Middle Management
• 30:37 Taking Action and Moving Forward

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

I'm Lindsay, and it's time to gather at the well. We're on a mission to microdose wellness, create human-centered systems and retain our greatest asset our people. We believe it's time for podcasts that teach, moving beyond thought leadership and towards change leadership. Join us and our friends at we Are For good as we model the way with concrete examples from the field and gain tangible tools, because it's possible to build adult work cultures. We don't need to heal from. Let's get into it. Welcome back, welcome back. You arrived to gather at the well, the podcast that teaches. I'm glad you've joined. We're about halfway through our series at this point, centering human-centered policies and leadership, and we're so grateful that you were able to join.

Speaker 1: 0:54

So get comfy, because we've been on this journey of trying to almost audit both internally with ourselves, but also literally within our companies, our organizations, our schools or districts. So where are you now? Are you close to operating a human centered business or do you have a ways to go? It's all good, we're on our way, but maybe just start by getting comfortable in your seat or, if you're standing, moving, a couple of stretches just to open your mind, open your heart. I'm reaching my arms up and out, opening my rib cage. I want to transition from my last task and be as present as possible, and I invite you to do the same. So if you've been following the Teaching Well podcast through we Are For Good, you've heard me run my mouth a whole lot about some of our favorite policies and the opportunities for play and innovation. We've talked about bereavement, reproductive loss, first year of life supports, as well as our wellness and pd stipends. But today I want to talk about a policy that isn't fancy or cute, but it's one that really is significant. It means a lot to me as a restorative practitioner and one that I believe creates a trauma-informed or healing centered container for my staff, and that's the corrective progression. I'm going to put a little bit of tea. I'm going to try and keep it loose leaf, organic here.

Speaker 1: 2:36

I find, as someone who only recently in the last four years, transitioned to the wellness field, right, because the teaching well sits at the intersection of education and wellbeing in the workplace. But many wellness orgs are real freestyle Shout out to the healers of the world. I know healing is fluid, but orgs with no structure can perpetuate just as much harm as the traditional stereotype of a business harm as the traditional stereotype of a business. Micromanagement, punitive behaviors, carry your box out via a walk of shame. That's what the movies tell us about, especially corporate work. But what about when you have no job descriptions, no systems for evaluation or feedback, coaching or support? What about when there's no handbook, conflict arises between teammates or compensation and rest? Policies and practices are unclear. This is a recipe for burnout or for burning up relationships that are significant and have the potential to lead towards really rigorous collaboration and impact.

Speaker 1: 3:47

As an educator, I believe kids crave structure. Systems. Policies and practices, when done well, can keep us safe and supported. There's a path to liberatory, human-centered policies that still pass legal muster, and if you tuned into our last episode, you know that Marisol and I were really talking about the tension and walking the line between liberatory and legally safe or sound policies. So at homework, from episode five, we encourage you to identify a policy that you'd like to create or that currently exists and isn't working for your team.

Speaker 1: 4:29

I'd like to give you another example, as I mentioned the corrective progression policy at the teaching well and run it through our framework, just to help you have an additional at-bat with this concept. So before I jump into that, I want to just give a tiny bit of context around what the corrective progression even means. I want to just give a tiny bit of context around what the corrective progression even means At its rawest form. When I was talking to my kids the other night about this, they're like, oh, it's how people get in trouble and I was like, huh sad that already the schooling system has taught my young children elementary school and younger that there are practices for punishment. I think about it really differently. I think about corrective progression as the opportunity to create, sustain and care for relationships. And when we are misaligned or off track, when we are not meeting expectations within ourselves, within our team, for our organization, how do we recalibrate? This is how we start with the corrective progression. Literally, this is the policy language. So when I tell you we play, we play. It's our belief at the Teaching Well that we are all lifelong learners with the capacity to grow. We also know that to be a restorative and trauma sensitive organization, it's best practice to hold consistent and predictable practices anchored in caring relationships. All teammates are assigned to a supervisor who, in part, is responsible for facilitating the support and accountability of supervisees. By articulating a standard corrective progression, it enables us to mutually resolve employee performance challenges in order to retain employees as productive team members whenever possible.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Let's unpack that last line right, correcting for the very human nature of middle managers, supervisors, folks in charge leadership positions, from bringing in their subjective feelings, reactions or course corrections with their staff. We know change is hard, but we say at the teaching well, it doesn't have to be traumatic. We want to sustain dignity and I hold the belief that you shouldn't kick folks when they're already down. Shame and guilt are already heavy enough. So be good on purpose, even if your frustration is justified. As a supervisor, I've watched as clients who hold positional authority feel self-righteous in their allocation of punitive actions. They project their feelings, almost even a vibe of parenting, onto their staff. Like this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you. Or do as I say, not as I do. It's icky.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Restorative practices are not just an item to add to your plate, they are the plate, they're the holder for all relationships. One of our principals that we work with told us that her mother, who's a clinician, said if you hold things in, you'll get sick. Then I wonder, what does micromanaging do? I don't know. I'd speculate a reciprocal type of damage, both a picking away at the spirit, efficacy, self-worth of the supervisee, but also chipping away at the true leadership potential of the manager. And without calibration on these types of practices inside of your organization, your staff can experience a type of whiplash, especially if they change supervisors and have a radically different experience.

Speaker 1: 8:11

So in that policy frame that we provide, in many of our human-centered policies where we've innovated, there's a little bit of a framing that articulates our values and our stance. But you heard it outright Our mission, our goal internally, is to retain our people and have them be productive team members. We state that outright. So when I think about the corrective progression and I measure it up against the framework that we articulated in the last several episodes, we visioned towards a policy, marisol and I said there is no process when we arrived at the teaching. Well, for equitable, ethical, responsive, but also clear boundary setting and support accountability in the face of performance concerns, our vision is that this does not have to be punitive. Our vision is that especially folks who are neurodivergent or who are trauma survivors don't experience a gotcha, but that they feel clear, contained and confident in getting back on track.

Speaker 1: 9:21

We drafted the policy and we shared it with certain culture keepers on the team who we knew, especially in our context, had had employment trauma and would have feedback on the desired experience. Because everybody makes mistakes, we have agency decide how we respond to them. Of course we had our legal counsel take a look at it and, yeah, we got some feedback and then we needed to broker a middle path. Of course we then followed it with some change management, socializing it with our team and retraining our supervisors. So what are a couple of other little nuggets from this policy, just so you can see the ways in which human-centered values can be illustrated Deeper into the policy.

Speaker 1: 10:14

It shares that for severe or pervasive performance issues not remedied by feedback and or coaching because, remember, we believe and practice at the teaching wall that every employee deserves both a coach and a supervisor the teaching wall may choose to utilize a corrective progression system and we actually name in our policy that the leader should make every effort to transparently communicate that an employee has entered the corrective progression. In other words, literally, the supervisor says verbally and or in writing to their supervisee that they have entered the corrective progression. Why? Because it eliminates the guesswork. This is where we are and you can refer back to the handbook to see exactly what's coming. We then articulate examples of what that can look like, again to empower the employee to understand the process, where they are and how effectively they can rechart their course. Examples like one-on-one note taker comments, a corrective memo, a formal support plan. But we also talk about restoratives and that teammates could potentially be in a corrective progression on multiple topics concurrently. They could be in step one on one issue and step two on another. It's not three strikes out, and that feels really important in our organization. So this is just one example of a policy that we've mapped up against the framework and we're hoping you're doing that as well.

Speaker 1: 11:58

Let's take an opportunity for a somatic while you integrate what I've shared. This practice is called the breath of joy. Shout out to Aaliyah, our director of development, who brought this into the team At a very basic level. This practice invites us to inhale three times brief, short, and then exhale in one long breath. Let's try it on. You might get comfortable adjusting your posture to a relaxed but alert position. Invite you to drop your shoulders from your ears and, if it feels safe or nourishing, to close your eyes or lower your gaze. To begin, we'll take in those three short breaths through the nose and a long exhale through the mouth. Let's do three more just like that, on your pace. Perhaps, like me, you've noticed that your breath has slowed and that exhale has extended, creating more space in your nervous system to be with what's here and to access your brilliance. You might flutter your eyes open, look to a source of natural light if possible. If it's nighttime, you might look to a source of joy inside of your space, like a picture frame, a plantita or a gift or token of appreciation from a colleague or kiddo.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Let's get back into it At a high level. We've been toying with this question of how do we build organizations that are resilient, that can stand the test of time, can make it through and weather these storms and the storms are storming but also take care of our greatest asset, which is our staff. And I boil it down to really this reflection that folks want to work for orgs that work for them. If you're in LinkedIn, you'll see that there are so many folks who have gone through this really grueling process of applying over and over and over again to roles and getting that rough news. That's real, it's real.

Speaker 1: 14:50

And there are also sectors like education, and I know it's an unpopular belief I hold, but I have been saying for years and I continue to believe, we do not have a staffing shortage in schools in many, many, many of our districts and communities. We have a staffing shortage in schools in many, many, many of our districts and communities. We have a staffing crisis and there's a difference. There are ample credentialed folks in many urban centers, especially those individuals with the quote magic money that came after the pandemic, this huge influx of state and federal COVID-19 support dollars. It ballooned our middle manager roles, it ballooned support roles. And I'm going to say right now we do need ample bodies on campuses to work with children, ample bodies on campuses to work with children, to feel sustained, to have adequate rest and breaks, to be able to collaborate and engage in professional development, coaching, observation and feedback. We need to have enough staff and some school staff got enormous relative to the size of enrollment of their student body. And I bring this in because it feels really important to name that in some sectors actually, there are a ton of roles open. Folks can get hired in any number of schools and they have a tremendous amount of choice.

Speaker 1: 16:23

That being said, it doesn't mean that the schools, the districts or these organizations are working for them, are creating desirable conditions that create sustainability, that create workplace well-being, that enable folks to feel holistically well that they can balance their life. One of the worst feelings as an educator is when you look up and you feel like you're missing your own kid's journey. You're so busy tending to caring for, loving on other people's children and bless that. It's an honor and a privilege, but you're not always present. I always talk about the shifts. Shift one is at work, shift two is when you come home and you're parenting, if you're a working parent. Shift three is maybe dating my partner and shift four is what's left in the tank. For me, that's the standard progression of of how folks think about their tank and, frankly, most of their tank is used during the workday, especially if you're working with tiny humans during the workday, especially if you're working with tiny humans.

Speaker 1: 17:30

But if you're giving your all to a company that can't even return basic care, we're out of balance and we've got a real challenge. There's an upfront cost and investment to recharting your policies, to bringing in experts, to gaining the feedback and using some of your staff meeting time to survey, but the long-term impact and reward is absolutely worth it. Have to restart, retrain, re-onboard every single year, losing the institutional knowledge, best practice, the cultural cornerstones of this is how we do it here and the impact directly to those you're trying to serve, because you have a stable team that feels resourced enough to give it their all, and by all I mean 80 to 90%. I will take a strong B plus and an A from my team. I don't want them giving a hundred percent, and I remind this in particular to principals who have often been trained to tell folks that they expect 110%. That's unmanageable, it's toxic. Let these people go home and still have something for their families. Let these folks go home and still have something for themselves. In fact, you'll get the best version of them when you're not asking for overexertion.

Speaker 1: 18:57

So as you think about auditing current policies, I want to invite you to think about what policies you already have, what you need. And then how do you build a sustainable plan to generate progress, monitor and then hold yourself accountable to revisions at a clip that you can sustain. Hold yourself accountable to revisions at a clip that you can sustain. I've already told on myself. I love alliteration, so bear with me here. But three categories that come to mind when I look for human centered policies are those that fall under the category of care, others that fall under conditions and then the final is corrections, and I gave you an example of the corrective progression which would fall under the ladder.

Speaker 1: 19:49

I think about those as policy groupings that speak to anything that's hard. So literally, when things get hard in your org with your team in performance, what do you do? What are the steps you take? What can folks expect? But let's go back to conditions. A lot of the policy handbook that we have speak to conditions Expectations. With grace is something I think about.

Speaker 1: 20:19

I have no idea why so many handbooks have a full page on professional attire. I'm like, look, especially if you're working at home and you want to be in sweats, that's your business. It's kind of like a mullet. What do they say? Business on top, party in the back. I think remote work is more like professional waist up, bottom is your business. But it's also policies like what I call moving about the cabin. So remote and flexible work.

Speaker 1: 20:45

We're a hybrid organization. During the peak of the pandemic we were fully remote and there was a change management process, working with our staff to return to hybrid work why? Because the vast majority of our clients are schools, districts and nonprofits, who are all back on the front line, and one thing that is bad for your brand is if you're a consultant that never is out in the field, sitting in your cozy Sherpa with your AC running, and the people that you're trying to coach actually are running about in the streets on their campuses doing hard work. It's not that your work is invalid, it's just that there's a disconnect and over time, it can erode trust or credibility when they feel like you're too removed. So it felt really important for us to honor the experience of educators and non-profiteers by actually getting out into the work with them training at their sites, doing walkthroughs, doing coaching meetings in their office, so we can feel what it is like to have a thousand disruptions. Or even, last week, shout out to my team who were, on multiple days, locked into campuses when community violence was surrounding and were able to provide real-time co-regulation with staff and then resume their coaching once things were safe again.

Speaker 1: 22:09

Speaking of safety, there are likely policies under this conditions bucket that speak to security and safety, like having a drug-free or alcohol-free workspace. That's something I really recommend is that, as you're building communities of culture. Wait, let me say that differently. Something I really want us to be cautious of is community building beyond happy hours. I'm not knocking it If that's your team's vibe, good for you. But when I was working at my former district, when I was a baby teacher, there was a real culture of drinking, not of course, when children were around, but there were town halls and professional development meetings where there would be celebrations and an alcohol cart would come in. We have to be mindful of the fact that some of your employees may be in recovery, may have former traumas, may be currently working a program, and if you're prepared to punish them for not participating in something that will literally cause them harm, then actually your culture isn't one of community, of belonging, of inclusion and of psychological safety. So how do we diversify our offerings and security and safety policies kind of set the tone and can guide leadership decisions around investing in play in safe ways.

Speaker 1: 23:41

A final kind of subsect of this might be some of your we call it literally take some time off with an exclamation point. In our handbook, this section speaks to things like PTO, sick days, and then also you may have state-specific guidelines. I was really pleased to see that California has expanded expectations and codified in law Shout out to our attorney who put us up on game a couple years ago about this but there are protections for folks in situations of DV, folks who are experiencing stalking, essay, crime and abuse victims. There are legal protections so that you can't lay them off if they go through a traumatic event without some real clarity, support and space for them to deal with the real scary life that's lifing and be able to return to work when they're able. That's the goal. And then the final bucket I spoke to was around care. So that might be things like financial freedom and compensation. It might be things like bereavement and loss. It might be like taking care of your team, wellness stipends and we have a retention retreat right which will be coming up in a future episode. Some of the ways that we are innovating around retention, bonuses that are connected to time, sabbaticals, micro-sabbaticals, etc. So hopefully, care conditions and corrections are a helpful guide for thinking about some of the primary human-centered buckets that you might look for or build towards in your organization.

Speaker 1: 25:25

Let's get in another somatic, another Aaliyah special. It was all about Aaliyah today in the somatics. We love that. Hey girl, this one's called Bumble Bee Breath and I've shared with y'all about vagal toning. It changed my life and I wish I had learned it in elementary school.

Speaker 1: 25:44

There are dozens of ways to tone or strengthen your vagus nerve, which is your 10th cranial nerve that is responsible for in large part, some of your resilience, and you can enhance, improve and strengthen that vagus nerve. One of the keys is humming. That's one of the ways that we can vagal tone. So in this practice you'll inhale again through your nose, but in the exhale you'll close your lips and make a humming sound similar to a bumblebee, and you'll continue humming until you've exhaled all of the air from your lungs. I'm going to say the last part without stuttering. And you'll continue humming until you have exhaled all the air from your lungs. Shall we try Again, getting situated just how you like it, adjusting your body to a bit more comfort as you metabolize the content we've explored so far Eyes open or closed, inhaling through the nose, exhaling with a hum, inhaling through the nose, exhaling with feel even one percent more grounded after that invitation.

Speaker 1: 27:51

So as we begin our downward descent here, I just want to name that this cannot all fall on your executive leadership team. Some of y'all just rolled your eyes, cut your teeth and clutched your pearls Like how come, lindsay, what you talking about? It can't, it just can't. First of all, it is their job to be responsive to the needs of their staff and leaders in that middle space supervisors, managers, team leaders and even I talked about in episode two your culture keepers, who may not have an official title but who have a tremendous amount of influence. When they speak, folks listen. When you're not in the room, they carry your culture.

Speaker 1: 28:31

Middle management gets a bad rap, but they're a key lever in generating, establishing and upholding human-centered policies. They're a bridge between compassionate but likely overextended leadership, ensuring the company's employees receive the intended care by design. And, if you just kind of cut your eye at me, like what if you don't have a compassionate, overextended leadership? Alternatively, your middle managers may be the buffer or stopgap between a workplace abuser and the vital employees that serve the org. So, whether you're a bridge or a stopgap, or at least a shield for the people that you support and care about for your colleagues, a shield for the people that you support and care about for your colleagues, my invitation is just don't be that guy Advocate for policy shifts. You've got a seat at the table. You have the ear of the leader. Clear some space for others to join you. Create more opportunity. Reach back and pull up. Bring folks along with you.

Speaker 1: 29:40

Creating and sustaining policies and organizational cultures that don't harm is all of our responsibility. You'll hear me talk about that over and over and over again. We can't wait for a leader to save or liberate us. We have so much power inside of organizations and if you really don't hit me up on the side because there are organizations that want you to join their team, who believe in your holistic wellbeing, they exist. I promise I know some examples. So here's an idea for your homework Build a short Google survey organized in those three buckets I shared above care, conditions and corrections.

Speaker 1: 30:25

List out some of the policies and you know we'll put this inside our blog that teaches. Copy and paste it into your Google survey and push it to your team. Let them weigh in on these human-centered policy categories. Let their needs drive your action. Don't stay in your office ruminating about what you could do better. Ask them Then make moves. This is going to take a lift and it's absolutely worth it.

Speaker 1: 30:57

Some affirmations that might support you during this pursuit, one step at a time is enough for me. I am worthy of healing centered policies. We deserve policies that help, not harm. I am brilliant. I can lead this effort. Our closing critical hope here.

Speaker 1: 31:23

The real is that our budgets communicate our priorities and our policies are an extension of that protection. There are so many graphics demonstrating managers and organizational leaders as umbrellas that sort of shield their teams from the rainstorm, but policies also create a necessary sustainability for leaders and supervisors, and that's often not talked about. Your team is entitled and deserving of workplace conditions that are healthy, and also the folks who are responsible for implementing teaching. Also the folks who are responsible for implementing teaching, holding accountable to these policies, deserve for them to be clear. Otherwise, you're creating inefficient, ineffective organizational practices. Investment, but I promise you that what seems like just a piece of paper, a handbook that collects dust on your shelf or somewhere in your Google ocean, it's so much more than that. It's living and fluid, and I think about each year's handbook as a time capsule of my own efficacy as a leader and of the state of being inside of this organization. Each time capsule is a bit better, a bit stronger and more evidence of our values in action. You can get there too.

Speaker 1: 32:55

I hope you have an incredible week. Looking forward to tuning in with you again soon. All right, y'all. Thanks for coming to play at Gather at the Well, the podcast that teaches. If you like this conversation, come visit us online at theteachingwellorg and hit us up on our socials. Remember to visit the podcast page to download a couple of useful tools to get your life and heal up your work.