Veterinary Human Factors Advocate with focus on human skills, wellbeing and culture. Collaborator, advocate, podcaster | European Specialist in Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging
Thinking about pressure transfer, human motivation, stress and compassion following this interesting and deeply insightful post by Martin Whiting reflecting on the question of leadership and role-modelling following the release of the video showing a horse being repeatedly whipped by an Olympic dressage champion. For me, it brought up the question what role culture and the larger system play in incidents like these. Even though I am not a psychologist, I have plenty of lived experience and have read widely enough to know that human behaviour and decision-making (including my own!) is sometimes messy and complex. Pressures can be intrinsic or extrinsic, explicit or implicit and they can either be passed on or not as either explicit or implicit physical or verbal pressures, threats or in the worst case violence. We often don't know what made people behave in certain ways, but it seems to me that people often do what they do because - at least at some level - it makes sense to them at the time. As fallible humans, we sometimes get things awfully wrong and even if the 'wrong' thing made sense to us at the time and there may be external circumstances that influence our behaviour and decisions on a subconscious level, our behavioural choices are ultimately our responsibility. And therefore it is indeed a question of showing leadership, reflect on our behaviours and align them with our values, and accept responsibility without trivialisation when we make the wrong call. On the other hand it is also important to look at the wider system and culture in which we operate. If we want to incentivise people to motivate others - be it animals or other humans - to constructively collaborate rather than by using aversive methods, we need to build systems which reward not only the measurable outcomes but also how these outcomes are achieved. Animal and human welfare are interlinked. Proactively and consciously building compassionate, collaborative and psychologically safe cultures will ultimately benefit animals as much as the humans within them, and achieve performance in a way that does not erode trust. And they make it easier to do the 'right' thing more often, including speaking up when noticing behaviour that falls short of compassion and respect for other beings. #veterinarymedicine #animalwelfare #veterinarymentalhealth #compassionateleadership #psychologicalsafety #veterinaryhumanfactors
BSc BVetMed MA PhD PGCertVetEd DipECAWBM(AWSEL) MAcadMedEd MIoD FHEA FRSA FRSB FRCVS. RCVS and European Specialist in Animal Welfare Ethics and Law.
Charlotte Dujardin whips horse 24 times in shocking video king video This is the headline that caught me today. The link is below if you want to watch it. But needless to say the headline is accurate and admissions are made to support it. I understand the pressures we put underseleves under to perform, and the olympics would be a very powerful source of that pressure for an individual. But this is where leadership and role-modeling play their key part. Our pressures are not someone else’s pressure and are not transferrable. 1) when pressure is present, it is your time to show leadership and demonstrate the value you uphold to the others around you. That applies as much to the animals we work with as the people. Our change response to pressure is a reflection of us, not a reflection of them. So display or enhance your true nature at times of stress. 2) when you get it wrong, and we are all human and get things wrong, admit it, accept it, apologise for it and move forward in a better way. It is correct to be “deeply ashamed” of poor choices, but to trivialise it as a “lapse in judgement” minimises the role we play in leadership and role-modelling to others. I know the #equine world is tight. And personal experience has taught me that when you #whistleblow for breaches of standards you will get backlash. But I implore anyone who sees such flagrant abuses of the trust placed in the animal care leadership to step forward and be heard. It is only by exposure of such poor behaviour we can learn to grow and be better people. No one is above reproach. #animalwelfare #AnimalEthics #ECAWBM #horse #horsewelfare #CharlotteDujardin https://lnkd.in/e2jWuz3V
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3moGoodbye Charlotte. What is the point of watching this woman on top of a horse that has been whipped and abused. She apparently liked it so much she could not stop.