Since the beginning of this pandemic in the spring of 2020, numbers of teams have become virtual, on and off, depending on the surges of the virus and the decisions of their respective companies and governments. Virtual teams, of course, already existed before that, but they have now become a common practice. And now that this phenomenon has become routine, many have focused on this new problem: fostering psychological safety, particularly in remote teams, because it is quite challenging to do so in such a context. Discussions on diversity and inclusivity have been all the rage in recent years (and still are, of course, as we have yet to achieve a perfectly diverse and inclusive world), but psychological safety has become a subject of interest, fueled by the unusual circumstances of this pandemic.

But what is psychological safety, exactly? It is the belief that team members have when they are comfortable enough to ask questions or contribute ideas without fear of being judged, punished (in more extreme cases losing their job), or humiliated for not knowing something or making mistakes. Wondering what the difference is between trust and psychological safety? It’s rather subtle: trust is an essential component of psychological safety, as it is defined as “the extent to which we hold expectations of others in the face of uncertainty about their motives, and yet are willing to allow ourselves to be vulnerable’ (Geraghty, 2020). It is how you view other people and how you find them predictable and how you think you can rely on them whereas psychological safety is about how others view you or rather how you think they view you.

Hirsch, Wendy: Five Questions About Psychological Safety, Answered. Science for Work, 9 October 2017, https://scienceforwork.com/blog/psychological-safety/.

But let’s get back to psychological safety. When you eliminate the fear of judgment, your team members can not only be themselves, but they will be their best selves, as they will be allowed to be innovative, creative, and agile, and most importantly, ask for help when needed. Diversity of thought is a great advantage for success (Page, 2008), and this is where psychological safety comes in: “Without behaviors that create and maintain a level of psychological safety in a group, people do not fully contribute — and when they don’t, the power of cognitive diversity is left unrealized” (Reynolds and Lewis, 2018). 

Psychological safety doesn’t happen from one day to the next, though. It needs work, it requires everyone’s participation, and a profound culture change. Everyone needs to go through four stages to feel safe. According to Timothy Clark, these are inclusion safety, learner safety, contributor safety, and challenger safety (Clark, 2020). Psychological safety needs work, a change of attitude and a change of culture.

Increase mistake tolerance

Based on the belief that nobody’s perfect and we all make mistakes, even if we work hard and try our best, the idea here is to change our mindset and stop viewing failures only as such but as learning opportunities. Teams with better psychological safety will not correct others for a mistake they made to put them down, they will tell them to help them. Amy Edmondson published a study in 1999 in which she coined the term “Psychological Safety.” In it, she reported conversations she had with employees she interviewed for her study. In one of those conversations, a lady told her that before her team decided to offer a better psychologically safe environment, when someone would point out a mistake she made, she would take it as a reproach and would then be on the lookout for a mistake that person would make to be able to blame her in return. After the team made psychological safety a priority and had worked on it for a while, it totally changed her perception and in turn, that changed her behavior. She reported that she viewed it then as a learning opportunity because her colleague would do it purely to help her and help the team make better products (Edmondson, 1999, p.371). Some companies have even created special events to discuss this so that not only the employee making the mistake learns from it, but the whole team (or even a larger circle) does too.

Exercise 1: Hold an Anxiety Party. 

The Google Ventures team decided to implement this because when they were created, they had a rather flat hierarchy and although they appreciated all the advantages and liberties that brought, the team found they lacked critical feedback. They came up with the idea of an Anxiety Party: they hold this type of meeting a couple of times per year, where all team members have to write a list of everything that causes them anxiety. Then, everyone shares and the other team members have to rate the level from the most to the least worrying (5 – you really need to improve in this area to 0 – I didn’t even realize this was an issue). They realized most of the time, people worried for nothing. The score generally makes people feel relieved and stop worrying about non-issues and focus on what actually needs improvement (the 5s and 4s to start with). This is a great psychological safety exercise since the issues are brought up by the people who have them and feedback is then easier to accept.

Keep your biases in check, remember Hanlon’s Razor to adopt a more positive mindset

Hanlon’s razor principle is the assumption that when something goes wrong, it is more likely accidental rather than the result of ill will, or as Hanlon wrote: “Never attribute to malice, that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Ok, well, stupidity may not be the most probable cause, since hopefully, your team is not stupid, but let’s say humans can sometimes be absent-minded, tired, distracted, overworked, etc. Simply put, when someone makes a mistake, one shouldn’t assume it was intentional. This rule of thumb will help cultivate understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and trust in your team.

Take the case of an email that gives the impression that a colleague was rude or too blunt; you can probably rightly assume that this is purely a miscommunication problem (maybe English is not their mother tongue, or the author is from a culture where things are said in a direct manner, but it isn’t meant to be offensive, or maybe you just misinterpreted things). When in doubt, clarify things in person or on a video call. The use of emojis might also help avoid tone misreadings when you are the one sending a message. Some might not be comfortable using them in a professional setting, but they really can help prevent certain types of misunderstandings. Modifying your biases and assuming good intentions in people can go a long way!

Exercise 2: Ask powerful questions. 

When you doubt someone of the wrongdoing, ask these powerful questions (From Douglas W. Hubbard, 2009, cited in Vinita Bansal, no date):

• Why do I feel this way?
• What data do I have to justify that the other person acted out of bad intention?
• Are there other instances where they acted this way?
• Have I spoken to them about it?
• What is the probability that I am incorrect?
• Could I be biased at the moment?
• What other possible reasons could make them behave this way?

Make it a Habit for Everyone to Speak Up and Participate

First, team leaders need to prioritize psychological safety explicitly. Ground rules must be laid down and applied. Leaders, alongside their team, need to establish how failure is handled (no punishment for failure despite efforts, reasonable risks taken, and good faith). They should make failure an opportunity to learn and, above all, to share collectively the lessons learned thanks to failure (which will be not only a learning opportunity but also one to create a safe space for others to know that we can all admit our failures, contributing to this safe space). Finally, teams need to learn how to accept and adopt productive conflict. That is to say, having constructive discussions, allowing questioning, and accepting contesting can be done, by following certain ground rules, such as respect, listening, honesty and kindness, for everyone to feel safe doing it. Even when there is no conflict, nothing delicate to discuss, making sure every team member has to participate should become a habit. It is the leader’s responsibility to ensure everyone speaks. To do so, they might use different methods to ensure everyone gets the chance to speak. For example, one can give each a turn to speak, or when with a bigger group, use break rooms to facilitate everyone having time to speak up. Speaking up in smaller groups is also easier, less intimidating. The team must try different methods to ensure everyone gets turns speaking up.

Exercise 3: Create a space for idea sharing. 

Try creating a particular space for ideas (new, crazy, or maybe even bad ideas), whether during meetings or on a specifically dedicated Slack channel, for example. That way, people know there is at least this time or space where they are not only allowed but purposefully encouraged to brainstorm, share and contribute whatever they have on their mind, knowing this frame is meant for it and is a safe space to do so.  

Exercise 4:  Accept Silence to Give Time to Reflect. 

For everyone to have a chance to speak, people need to learn to be more comfortable with silence. For example, during Zoom meetings, participants tend to be uncomfortable when silence arises and tend to want to fill it (or hope someone else will). Doing so can prevent others in your team from speaking up. Sometimes, people simply need more time to reflect before answering or formulating their ideas before communicating them, especially non-native speakers. Some are just shy or new in the company or in that position, and don’t have the confidence yet to speak.  We all need that extra few seconds to muster up our courage to share that original idea or important concern, sometimes. Leaders have to remember that reflective silence is valuable and to purposely give time for everyone to have a chance to speak-up, even if that means letting an uncomfortable silence last longer (it’s not thaaaat painful, is it… and something might come out of it!). To avoid experiencing a more detached type of silence, you can let your team members know in advance what kind of input you are expecting from them at the next meeting a bit in advance.

Exercise 5: Value diverse perspectives. 

Diversity of ideas and perspectives is a major factor in creative and innovative thinking. It is one of the important factors to success (Page, 2017, 2:45). To encourage this, ask everyone to play the devil’s advocate alternately. That way, people have to think differently, and it takes away the risk (real or perceived) that the rest of the team will judge them for having different, crazy, or “negative” ideas or points of view, a point of view that could help your team solve problems and even foresee them, before they become one. This strategy using a cooperative approach instead of a competitive one, will be more effective to advance the reflection on the problem discussed (e.g. your product has a bug and you need to find a solution) and will help develop respectful debate habits simultaneously (Menzies, 2018).

Exercise 6: Promote courageous conversations. 

Sometimes a product or a project is just not as good as it could be. But team members don’t always dare say so, even if they can put the finger on what the problem might be. You can pave the road to openness by having sessions, specifically for any critiques or frustrations anyone may have with a product/project, without fear of negative consequences. Everyone must listen without interrupting. After this, everyone has to offer solutions to the problem. 

Exercise 7: Hold a blameless post-mortem.  

Another way to promote difficult conversations is having blameless post-mortems. The goal here is not to find out who made mistakes but what could be changed in the processes to avoid those mistakes being made in the future and improve performance. This method prompts team collaboration. If you are looking for more exercises and methods to promote courageous conversations or support psychological safety in other ways, have a look at this great article from Fearless Culture.

Exercise 8: Apply the method of “liberating structures”. 

This method was developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless to enable everyone’s participation in large groups. During a meeting, to ensure everyone’s input on a specific matter, first ask everyone to reflect and take notes on the question/problem at hand for one minute. Then, everyone must regroup in pairs and discuss for two minutes, then for four minutes in groups of four (matching previously existing pairs), before finally discussing the matter with the whole group. The advantage here is that all have a chance to offer their ideas. It is less intimidating to do in small groups. Also, while still in smaller groups of 2 and 4, ideas can already be compared, reflected upon, the best can be chosen to be discussed at the next level, before they are brought up in front of the whole group. There is admittedly a very limited time for feedback, but an idea can be discussed further if it wasn’t bad enough to be eliminated at the end of a round. It nonetheless enables the improvement of the ideas before they are discussed at a higher level. This type of structure also helps avoid control or influence of the boss on the discussion, leading to a more restricted discussion and what is practical and effective, is that this structure drives the discussion to convergence.

Exercise 9:  Encourage impromptu conversations to build trust. 

Needless to say, in a virtual team, psychological safety is even more of a challenge to uphold.  Because trust is usually established through time and interactions, virtual teams do not have many interactions outside the scheduled meetings. Those team members don’t have the opportunity to have spontaneous, “non-business” conversations. This is why it is vital for those teams to create opportunities for such social contact. These casual conversations can foster better bonding and better relationships, which in turn facilitate communication and improve psychological safety.

For example, some might want to have different types of calls or communications, namely having a “good morning” call or (message for the whole team on a Slack channel) to start the day with a more casual conversation. Bigger organizations might want to have a dedicated video call open for anyone to drop in and chat as if they were on their coffee break. 

Exercise 10: Read body language and facial expressions.

One might think that virtual teams are at a disadvantage because it is so much more challenging to establish trust with so little contact and through a screen, and it is not entirely false, but there can be some advantages too. Online social contacts through video calls can be an opportunity to really try to understand the person talking on the screen and read their tone, body language, and facial expressions to feel what they might be feeling. It also might be easier for some people to intently look at their colleagues through a screen as they usually (hear in person) wouldn’t dare or be comfortable doing it so attentively. Indeed, as Altman underlined, “[i]n many cultures, it can be awkward to stare at someone for 30 seconds or certainly minutes at a time. But on Zoom, no one knows who you’re looking at, and your ability to apply your emotional intelligence can sometimes be enhanced.” Not only can it be helpful for employees who grew up in a culture where one can’t look directly in someone’s eyes for too long, but also for some neuroatypical people who are not comfortable doing it either. 

Take your time!

One might think that virtual teams are at a disadvantage because it is so much more challenging to establish trust with so little contact and through a screen, and it is not entirely false, but there can be some advantages too. Online social contacts through video calls can be an opportunity to really try to understand the person talking on the screen and read their tone, body language, and facial expressions to feel what they might be feeling. It also might be easier for some people to intently look at their colleagues through a screen as they usually (hear in person) wouldn’t dare or be comfortable doing it so attentively. Indeed, as Altman underlined, “[i]n many cultures, it can be awkward to stare at someone for 30 seconds or certainly minutes at a time. But on Zoom, no one knows who you’re looking at, and your ability to apply your emotional intelligence can sometimes be enhanced.” Not only can it be helpful for employees who grew up in a culture where one can’t look directly in someone’s eyes for too long, but also for some neuro–atypical people who are not comfortable doing it either.

Psychological safety is not something that is built overnight. Actually, “build” is not quite the right idea here, as psychological safety is not something you can ever 100% achieve and be done with. There will always be new people joining the team, setbacks, phases so that it will always remain a work in progress. It has to be the object of constant attention and perpetual efforts. All of this seems like a lot of work, and it is. But shifting your mindset to a more understanding and caring attitude is half the job. And since psychological safety was proven to make employees happier and perform better, it’s probably one of the most profitable changes you can bring to your work. It’s a win-win!

About the Author

Anne-Kristelle Carrier has an MA in International Politics. She has been living in Switzerland since 2010 and works as a Content Editor for Global People Transitions Ltd. in Zurich. When she is not working, bringing her kids to all their activities, or trying to cook something that they will eat (that doesn’t start with “chicken” and ends with “nuggets”), she enjoys everything Switzerland has to offer to residents and tourists alike, like ski slopes, Wanderwege, and museums.

References

Bansal, Vinita, (no date), Hanlon’s Razor: ‘How To Be Less Judgmental And Build Better Relationships,’ TechTello. Available at: https://www.techtello.com/hanlons-razor/ (accessed on 3 February 2022).

Clark, Timothy. The Four Stages of Psychological Safety, Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation, 2020, Random House, New York.

Edmondson, Amy. Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2 (Jun., 1999), pp. 350-383. (Available online at https://web.mit.edu/curhan/www/docs/Articles/15341_Readings/Group_Performance/Edmondson%20Psychological%20safety.pdf)

Geraghty, Tom, The Difference Between Trust and Psychological Safety, 16 November 2020, https://www.psychsafety.co.uk/the-difference-between-trust-and-psychological-safety/

Hubbard, Douglas W., Failure of Risk Management, 2009, Hoboken (New Jersey).

Hirsch, Wendy. Five Questions About Psychological Safety, Answered. Science for Work, 9 October 2017, https://scienceforwork.com/blog/psychological-safety/.

Lipmanowicz, Henri and Keith McCandless, Liberating Structure 1: 1-2-4-All. https://www.liberatingstructures.com/1-1-2-4-all/, retrieved 15, January 2022.

Menzies, Felicity. How to Develop Psychological Safety and a Speak-Up Culture.   https://cultureplusconsulting.com/2018/03/10/how-to-develop-psychological-safety/, retrieved 4 January 2022.

Page, Scott E.Diversity creates bonuses. It’s not just a nice thing to do.LinkedIn News Youtube channel, retrieved 10 January 2022.

Page, Scott E. (2008) The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies

Razetti, Gustavo, 9 Exercises to Promote Psychological Safety in Your Organization, How to Encourage Courageous Conversations at the Workplace. https://www.fearlessculture.design/blog-posts/exercises-to-promote-psychological-safety-in-your-organization

Reynolds, A. and Lewis, D., The Two Traits of the Best Problem Solving Teams, Harvard Business Review, 2018, https://hbr.org/2018/04/the-two-traits-of-the-best-problem-solving-teams.

https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/creating-a-high-trust-performance-culture/

Paul J. Zak is the author of Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High-Performance Companies.

Why Building Relationships is Harder for You

Turning into a Swiss Person

I sat on a panel, and I just got as far as saying “I think…” when the other panelist gave her opinion on the matter. She probably didn’t notice that I was trying to say something, but for a moment, I was annoyed and thought, “how rude…”. 

Funnily, many years ago in Germany, this would probably have been okay for me. However, I notice now how I have turned into a “Swiss person”. I also tend not to want to work with Germans who have just arrived in Switzerland because I notice in what they do too many of my own mishaps and small failures back when I was a newbie in Switzerland.

Having lived here in Zurich for over ten years now, I prefer to run my life Swiss-style. Despite considering myself open and tolerant, I still mess up intercultural communication. I’m not always understood, and sometimes I’m just wrong. I recently had a long discussion about left and right, and I know I have a weakness there. In the end, I found out that I muddled up left and right (again!).

Sometimes “Global English” also makes it worse: A bunch of non-native speakers trying to communicate in their second language can lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary emotions.

Here are eight reasons that might make it harder for you to build professional relationships right now. And I don’t think that the pandemic is the main reason.

Eight Reasons

1. You are shy, introverted, or not convinced that you are good enough to deserve success. Many partners suffer from the “impostor syndrome,” a psychological state of mind where people doubt their own accomplishments or consider themselves frauds just about to be exposed, especially if their career-driving partner just got another promotion in another country.
2. You are embarrassed and ashamed of being “unemployed”. This is especially hard in a society where most of your self-worth is driven by your career and how busy you are.
3. You come from a home culture where achievement is overly emphasized. In this cultures ascription is considered an unfair privilege while at the same time you are blindsided by the fact that you had an ascribed status in your home turf.  Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner associated the achievement dimension with protestant work ethic and belief. 
4. You underestimate the cultural and value diversity in Switzerland. Even if Switzerland is the home of Zwingli and Calvin, there are catholic cantons where status, just like in the protestant cantons, is often equated with a family name, wealth, and how many generations you have already been a member of this society. So, there is still a strong ascription component that is not so obvious to outsiders. You don’t recognize that you have been in the out-group until you join the “Circle of Trust.”
5. You are unaware of how you come across in person and assume that your style and behavior are “normal.” For example, you have not yet learned to read the cultural cues that hint that you might be too pushy or rude. A typical example in Switzerland is that newbies tend to overstretch a time commitment. In a society that runs on the clock and is a role model of the sequential time approach according to E.T. Hall’s time dimensions, not respecting this often creates a lot of stress for the other person.
6. You are sending messages to mark your status in your home turf, such as the “Dr.” title in Germany. Or hint at your seniority by name-dropping the influential VIPs you used to hang out with. Still, this is either not understood or considered boasting, narcissistic, and merely annoying in Switzerland. (You could even exaggerate your qualifications and background, for all we know!)
7. You interrupt your counterpart because you feel that they are slow. The Swiss tend to speak slower than many other Europeans, but they don’t like to be interrupted in their thought process as they are used to having a voice and being asked for their opinion on everything.
8. You come from a high-context culture and you feel like you don’t know how to address a “stranger”  adequately.  You don’t know how to phrase your requests (your “ask”) to them, and they don’t understand you at all.

Relationship Segmentation Can Be a Barrier

Over the years of running my own business and projects, I often noticed that all the tools I tested to maintain a strategic approach to networking failed miserably with the extensive network that I’ve built over my professional life. 

So, I decided to let go of “strategy” and follow my gut and memory. I realized that the best idea is not to worry too much about “contact segmentation.” We Germans love the word “Begriffsabgrenzung”, so we also do this to our social life (“Bekannter, Kollege, Freund, Verwandter, Familie, Partner, Ehepartner…”). It’s a step-by-step approach, showing how much you trust the other person.

The same segmentation exists in Switzerland, but there are “false friends”( e.g., the word “Kollege” means “Work Colleague” in High German and “Friend” in Swiss German). In Switzerland and Germany, the informal ways of addressing a person with “Du” have different meanings.

Without intercultural training, a German manager will behave like a bull in a china shop in Switzerland – completely unintentionally. Hence, working with German managers in the “honeymoon phase” is a lot of work for the trainer or coach. I prefer to work with you when you are beyond the honeymoon phase, and you understand that you might not function in Switzerland like you are used to.

A Fluid Approach

My colleagues have become friends over the years, and some of my best friends from my university days or early career are colleagues or clients now. Some of my team members have become family, and some of my family members work in the same field or closely related ones. And some friends will never pay you while others will insist on giving back. The world is colorful, and so are people.

While saying this, I don’t want to imply that you have to like everybody you work with or network with. However, it’s another atmosphere for collaboration and innovation when you can fully trust the other person, and know in your head and heart that this person would never talk badly about you behind your back and would not spill your secrets with your competitors. 

Safe and collaborative environments require “relationship work.” 

Let me know what you are doing today to work on your business relationships.

The Cambridge Analytica Files

In March 2018, the Observer published the first in a series of stories, known as the Cambridge Analytica Files, containing an account of a whistleblower from inside the data analytics firm that had worked in different capacities on the two 2016 political campaigns resulting in the election of President Trump and Brexit. 

Cambridge Analytica is a British political consulting firm that profiled millions of people on Facebook to better target them with fake ad hoc content that would make them more susceptible to topics such as immigration and terrorism. When questions were asked in the UK Parliament, Facebook admitted that, in the case of the Brexit referendum, 87 million users had had their profiles hacked. A year later,  the UK parliament published an official report that called Facebook “digital gangsters” and said that Britain’s electoral laws no longer worked. 

After the former director of research at Cambridge Analytica, said that his work also allowed Donald Trump’s presidential campaign to garner unprecedented insight into voters’ habits ahead of the 2016 vote, three U.S. congressional committees called Zuckerberg to testify on Facebook’s involvement in the ongoing data scandal.

Evidently, the widespread online presence of “fake news” can greatly influence our judgment and can have far-reaching impacts on the whole society. Unfortunately, one of the most dangerous features of “fake news” is that they can be hard to distinguish from “real news” due to the lack of transparency embedded in social media algorithms, but also due to the fact they easily and efficiently hide in the storm of information we are inundated with every day. 

It is exactly in this scenario that Digital Media Literacy becomes an essential resource to safely and consciously navigate in an online world where everyone has their own saying. 

Definition
Digital Media Literacy refers to the ability to find, write or evaluate information on various digital platforms. Digital literacy is measured by individual skills in composition, grammar, typing, or storytelling and including images or designs for an appealing result.

In order to be digital media literate, one must be able to critically consume and creatively produce multimedia content using digital technologies. Nowadays, the focus has expanded from desktop-only to mobile devices.

Digital literacy does not replace traditional forms of literacy. Instead, it builds on and expands the traditional forms. The term has grown in popularity in education and higher education settings and is used in both international and national standards.

The interpretation of online information can be summed up in the following eight best practices:

1.   Judge online information
2. Practice evaluating webpage
3. Read webpage contents
4. Beware of clickbait and fake news 
5. Understand targeted advertising and sponsored content
6. Identify echo chambers, Influencers, and photo manipulation
7. Recognize persuasive language
8. Separate facts from opinions.

Good Online Research Practices
How to evaluate and interpreting online information has become a vital skill. Familiarizing young people in particular with DML so they can better tell fake news has become a necessity, whether you’re reading an article, watching a video, or using social media. On the basis of the eight fields from the definition, here are some recommendations.

1.   Judge Online Information

You cannot trust every website. Think about the purpose of each site and the relevance of the information, be critical with the search results. Do they match your purpose?

2.   Practice Evaluating Websites

Who wrote or published the contents? What are they claiming? Does the site show bias?

3.   Read Webpage Contents

Locate the main content, don’t read every word just skim to find what you are looking for, ignore ads, don’t open attachments or third-party links.

4.   Beware of Clickbait and Fake News

Clickbait is a sensationalized headline that encourages you to click a link to an article, image, or video. Clickbait headlines often appeal to your emotions and curiosity, but the actual content is usually of questionable quality and accuracy. Once you click the link, however, the website hosting the link earns revenue from advertisers regardless of the content.

“Fake news” is an article or video containing untrue information disguised as a credible news source. While fake news is not unique to the Internet era, it has become a major problem in recent years because of how easy it is to publish online in today’s digital world.

5.   Understand Targeted Advertising and Sponsored Content

Targeted advertising is a form of online advertising that focuses on the specific traits, interests, and preferences of a consumer. Advertisers discover this information by tracking your activity on the Internet.

Sponsored content is an advertisement for a product, service, or brand that is often presented as organic opinions or recommendations by influencers. Only recently have social media platforms enforced labeling such content appropriately so as not to mislead users entirely. Sponsored content can also take the form of seemingly impartial news articles or videos.

6.   Identify Echo Chambers, Influencers, and Photo Manipulation

Content or products endorsed by social media stars (“influencers”) may or may not match your needs (see sponsored content above), be guarded and cautious. Using photo editing software, almost anyone can make big changes to an image, from adjusting colors and lighting to adding and removing content. That’s why you should always keep a critical eye on images in the media.

An echo chamber in digital media is a consequence of the algorithms and activity tracking that govern what content a person sees on any platform. This results in that person only encountering information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own. Echo chambers can create misinformation and distort a person’s perspective.

7.   Recognize Persuasive Language

Persuasive language can make any type of media more engaging and convincing. However, its ultimate purpose is to win your trust and influence how you think even if the facts do not support the arguments. Curiosity-picking language is typical of clickbait. Be careful, see behind the rhetoric, and think for yourself.

8.   Separate Facts from Opinions

Newspapers, radio, and TV usually made a clear distinction between the objective facts that can be proven, and opinion crafted by their writers and producers. They used terms like editorial, op-ed, and commentary to distinguish opinionated content from more objective reporting. In digital media, watch out for facts that actually just favor a certain perspective.

Best practices

Digital media is replacing traditional media and is the most accessible form of information for most 21st century audiences and learners. Many countries are conducting research or introducing various educational measures to counter digital illiteracy. Implementing DML into school curricula as well as offering vocational training on DML is becoming more important with the changes in the communication and publication industry. More jobs these days require high-level skills such as accessing information, solving problems, and working collaboratively.

Singapore
The Singaporean government launched The Digital Media and Information Literacy Framework that guides digital literacy program owners and public agencies in planning media literacy and information literacy programs.

The Framework establishes a set of common objectives for program owners and public agencies and focuses on developing awareness in Singaporeans in the following ways:

• A fundamental appreciation of the benefits, risks, and possibilities that technology can bring and how online platforms and digital technologies work.
• A basic understanding of how to use information responsibly.
• The know-how for safe and responsible use of digital technologies.

The framework addresses both program owners and agencies as well as individuals.

USA

National Technology Education Plan
Schools in the US have started to offer courses in DML following a paper commissioned by The Aspen Institute outlining the need to move the digital and media literacy recommendations of the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy from a plan into action. These steps need the support of educational leaders and a new curriculum was developed in the context of K-12 education.

Steps to strengthen Digital and Media Literacy:

1. Support community-level DML activities.
2. Develop partnerships for teacher education.
3. Engage parents and other stakeholders.
4. Find inexpensive technology tools (social media is one of them, everybody has access).
5. Accept and overcome challenges.
6. Develop online measures of DML to assess learning progression.

Canada

British Council cooperates with Hands-on Media Education – a Canadian organization using stop-motion animation to introduce these concepts to people of all ages – as a way to teach digital media literacy through creative play. The iPad Stop Motion Animation workshop encourages these skills with youth, adults and older people alike. It enables them to understand the power of digital media and how it can be manipulated.

China (Beijing)

A perceived digital media literacy of primary student scale was developed with the aim of examining DML in primary school students. The participants (from the 5th and 6th grades) reported rather a high level of critical understanding and technical skills. The study identifies four dimensions of digital literacy that all relate to each other: technical skills, critical understanding, creation and communication, and citizenship participation.

Many terms, such as new media literacy, ICT literacy, ICT competence, digital literacy, and digital competence have emerged over the last few decades in the process of theoretical reflections on new media and technologies. These concepts are aimed at helping students develop a critical understanding of digital media and technologies, and the nature of various digital information.

Europe

The European Commission has launched a Digital Education Action Plan outlining how the EU can help people, educational institutions and educational systems better adapt to life and work in an age of rapid digital change. 

The action plan has three top priorities: 

1. Make better use of digital technology for teaching and learning.
2. Develop the digital competencies and skills needed for living and working in an age of digital transformation.
3. Improve education through better data analysis and foresight.

Initiatives entail supporting schools with high-speed Internet connections, scaling up a new self-reflection tool and mentoring scheme for schools (SELFIE), and a public awareness campaign on online safety, media literacy, and cyber hygiene.

Top Seven Killer Tips for Job-Seekers and Solopreneurs

In 2020, it is basically impossible for job-seekers and solopreneurs to thrive professionally without a digital presence. Unfortunately, in our times, professionals who don’t expose themselves via Digital Media are likely to send the wrong message. For example, people might think you are not self-confident and that your professional experience is not valuable, or that you believe you are so popular that others will anyway look for you, or that you don’t need more work because you are already going to become the next millionaire. 

Instead of creating this impression, here are seven killer tips to implement to develop a Digital Media presence: 

• Focus on the right platform 

The right platform is where potential hiring managers and clients hang out. In most cases, this would be LinkedIn, but depending on your professional profile, you could focus on Twitter or Goodreads (for writers) or Instagram (for photographers).

• Develop your own blog 

If you want colleagues and potential new clients to look at the content you produce you should have your own digital home base. But don’t expect people to find you right away. 

• Build trust

Selling online will take longer than face-to-face because before anyone wants to give you their email ID and bank details you will need to have their trust. You can develop trust by being a helpful source of information and by solving people’s problems. You can also build trust by being personal and by avoiding any sales touch.

• Promote other people’s work

Instead of promoting yourself, you should promote other people’s work. If you help others you will not come across as a big-headed egomaniac but someone who cares about people.

• Vet and check the information you share

Verify that the information you retweet is genuine, up-to-date and that links are actually working. Look for trusted sources and know where to be skeptical.

• Encourage others to develop content and endorse your colleagues

Tell others when their work is helpful and that you are actually reading their updates or their input.

• People will like you even more in Real Life

Digital Presence is great and if people then deal with you in real life (RL) they will still be positively surprised. One of the reasons for lack of trust nowadays is that everyone is putting their own interest in front. Many people are used to being cheated and have a hard time to accept support because they are not used to genuine help.

Resources

Hit post No. 1 

Read more about Angie Weinberger’s tips for job-seekers and solopreneurs.

Hit post No. 2 

Read more on where to begin your digital strategy as a solopreneur.

References

British Council. ‘A way to teach digital media literacy through creative play’. In British Council. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://www.britishcouncil.org/programmes/creative-play/digital-media-literacy

European Commission. ‘Digital Education Action Plan’. In Education and Training. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://ec.europa.eu/education/education-in-the-eu/digital-education-action-plan_en

European Commission. ‘Digital Education Action Plan: Action 2 SELFIE’. In Education and Training. Retrieved April 20, 2020 from https://ec.europa.eu/education/education-in-the-eu/european-education-area/digital-education-action-plan-action-2-selfie-self-reflection-tool-mentoring-scheme-for-schools_en

GCF Global. ‘Digital media literacy’. In GFC Global. Retrieved April 20, 2020 from https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/digital-media-literacy/

Government of Singapore. (2019, July 9). ‘Digital Media and Information Literacy Framework’. In Ministry of Communications and Information. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://www.mci.gov.sg/literacy

Roscorla, T. (2020, April 14). ‘10 steps to strengthen digital and media literacy’. In Center for Digital Education. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://www.govtech.com/education/news/10-Steps-to-Strengthen-Digital-and-Media-Literacy.html

Wikipedia contributors. (2020, April 17). ‘Digital literacy’. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 20, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Digital_literacy&oldid=951430878 

Zhang, H., & Zhu, C. (2016). ‘A Study of Digital Media Literacy of the 5th and 6th Grade Primary Students in Beijing’. In The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 25. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-016-0285-2

What beautiful sunny weather, we have had the chance to enjoy these last few days! You might, as I do,  make a point of benefiting from the last golden rays of the sun to soak up as much vitamin D as possible before the days become even shorter. Who doesn’t need that energy to accomplish everything that needs to be done, everything you want to do?  You might be in a position right now where either you are worried about losing your job, or you are already looking for a new job (or any kind of work). Maybe you have even been looking for a while already. Perhaps you feel it’s time to update your resume and your job searching skills, just in case. Anyhow, I thought you could use this reminder from my older publication, “The Global Career Workbook,” on how to get a Swiss recruiter’s attention.

Getting a Swiss recruiter’s attention is almost like asking her out on a date. 

When you write a cover letter, you want the other person to like you and find you attractive enough to read your resumé. The cover letter is your appetizer, and the resumé is your main course. If you get to the interview stage, then that’s like having dessert on the first date. And after three interviews, you might get kissed. I mean, you might get the job offer you are longing for.

Don’t spoil the Swiss recruiter’s appetite by presenting the main course in the cover letter.

Imagine you are on your first date, and your counterpart tells you for half an hour how great they are. Rather boring, right? You zoom out of the conversation and wish to run away. The same is true if a recruiter reads your whole resumé already in the cover letter.

What could you do to make the conversation more interesting?

Cover letter writing is an art. With modern technology, applicants often do not see the need to write a cover letter these days, but in my opinion, it is the most artistic part of a good application. Emphatically,  in Switzerland, IT’S A MUST.

Many recruiters want to read it. They would like to see that you made an effort to get that interview. I receive considerable amounts of cover letters, and most of them sound like they were copied from a textbook. Nobody gets excited reading some sort of ‘copy and paste’ write-ups, void of personal touch.  Only the more personal ones gain my attention. They have to be personal, crisp and show me who you are.

Here are rules for fresh cover letters:

• Use the correct name of the recruiter instead of Sir or Madam. Take out time to research the recruiter’s name. This portrays you as serious. Make sure you also spell the names of references correctly. Be respectful and address recruiters formally.
• Make the letter appealing and nice-looking by using one font only and adhering to standard letter writing style in the country you are applying to.
• Speak about the needs of the other party before you speak about yours. This is so important because the prospective job is about what you can bring to the table.
• Find a personal connection between either you and the company or you and the recruiter. Maybe you use one of their products, or associate positive feelings with the brand because of a personal story.
• If you copy and paste (which is not a good idea in general), please check that you did not use the wrong company name or contact person. It helps to read the letter out loud.
• Use active language and complete sentences. When I say active language, I ask you to use more verbs than nouns, avoid passive constructs and keep sentences short.
• If you are not an English native speaker, check your translation and let a native speaker review your grammar. Most recruiters get irritated when they find grammatical errors in cover letters.
• Be brief and stick to a maximum of one page. Five paragraphs are sufficient.
• Add your contact information in the last paragraph, especially your phone number and email ID. Make sure your email sounds respectable, and the name is memorable. Email addresses like ‘sexynancy@gmail.com’ are not acceptable.
• Avoid slang and casual writing style. You are a professional, so behave like one! Even if you are from Generation Y or Z, remember that this is a letter and not a chat. The person you want to date might be the age of your parents.

Here’s to the sunny weather, boosting your energy to take that next important step: preparing your application file. I hope these tips help you write the best cover letter you can write to catch the Swiss recruiters’ attention, get to the “dessert” stage, and get you the job you are hoping for! 

HireMeExpress 2022 – Pre-Workshops for all Club Members

I will teach you insights on 

Workshop No. 1:  Partnering Masters – Building Effective Relationships

Workshop No. 2: Powerful Missions – Having a Voice in a Sea of Noise

Workshop No. 3: Persisting Mindsets – Designing Work to Support a Global Lifestyle

All invites will be shared when you sign up on our HireMeExpress list. 

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Reminder: Sign up here to find out everything you need to know in order to land a job in Switzerland or another market you are not familiar with. We will send you our 19 Fresh Resume Checkpoints and further material such as videos. In case you have any questions you can email us via angela@globalpeopletransitions.com.

Offline and Online Presence is the Way Forward

These days, if you’re not on LinkedIn or any equivalent jobs platform, you’re either sitting on a large inheritance or seriously out of touch with the industry. For freelancers in particular and job seekers in general, having a digital presence is now perhaps as essential as being qualified to work, to begin with.

A network of peers and industry members is something that was essential in the offline era, does it not make sense that professional networking would be more important in the digital age? I remember starting online networking in 2004, a move that was particularly helpful for me – as I moved cities and countries, I was able to remain in constant touch with my established network, able to leverage it for various purposes as the need arose. For us nomads a network that travels everywhere with us is priceless.

Looking back at that time and analyzing the power that was afforded to me by my digital professional network, I got to thinking about how this could be used to empower job seekers everywhere. That is how HireMeExpress was set up: allowing professionals to hack the Swiss Job Market with strong business connections, both offline and online.

Pinpoint the platform where you will find Hiring Managers and Clients for your industry

LinkedIn may be the ‘de facto’ professional networking platform for the masses, but certain industries are known to frequent alternative digital platforms. The publishing and writing industry, for instance, can be found on Twitter and Goodreads. Photographers and videographers have made their home on Vimeo, YouTube, and Instagram. The bottom line: Inhabit the right digital spaces so you can make the right connections.

Understand that a digital presence takes longer to pay dividends.

The internet era is the era of scams and fake profiles. It takes longer to build trust with a stranger than it would through only real-world meets. You can speed the process along by building your digital home, ideally a blog or a Youtube channel that acts as a thorough resume for visitors. Once you’ve interacted with someone online, directing them to your blog would allow them to access not only your professional biography but a way to contact you.

Remember to use tools to set up a sign-up form so you can start building your list of followers.

Support and develop the community.

Self-promotion is a big turn-off, you should instead focus on promoting other people’s work. A great way to be a positive influence in your network is to endorse other people’s work (on LinkedIn or otherwise). It is especially helpful for people who are modest or doubt their own achievements (a condition known as “imposter syndrome”). By fostering a communal and supportive network, you can create goodwill among colleagues and with peers in general. It is essential to create the right image online.

Be genuine when you meet people IRL (In Real Life).

A general assumption about digital presences is that they are heavily curated, that is, they contain cherry-picked information that may not be representative of the entire picture. By showing that you’re as nice, if not nicer, in real life will be a pleasant and welcome surprise to all who meet you. Be genuine in providing help, be genuine in general and good things will happen to you.

You will eventually generate an income
We developed our #HireMeExpress program so that we can help expats and digital nomads with a minority background in the new country to generate an income.

The HireMeExpress program gives you immediate access to a trusted circle of like-minded professionals. We can help you expand your networks faster! In any group, shared experiences are the key to building relationships and trust, while also providing growth opportunities through feedback from the group and the coach. The group gives you accountability and paces your efforts at the same time. Sometimes, especially when you would like to give up, the group carries you to the next step.

I hope the tips above can help you identify and maximize your digital presence.