Whispered messages on the mound, the trashing of psychological safety, Babs being a small fish, and Dostoevsky.
1
Amongst the home runs, 100 mph pitches, wild catches, and all the lovely team player dynamics like hugging, my favourite part of Game 5 of the World Series was watching back catcher Alejandro Kirk, after pitcher Trey Yesavage had thrown a couple of wild balls, take a moment to calmly walk to the mound and whisper a message in Yesavage’s ear.
After this moment Yesavage’s pitches were calm and focused.
I spent the rest of the game wondering and making guesses out loud (which I’m sure everyone else in the room was greatly appreciating) about what Kirk had said.
When later asked about what Kirk had said, Yesavage responded,
“He just said, I got this, I was built for this situation, and trust myself. I’m glad he came out. It slowed me down, because I needed that in that moment.”
My coaching heart exploded with happiness. Musings on Slowing Down.
2
The Silent Killer of Innovation: Why leaders must build psychological safety
- Toye Sobande, September 5, 2025. Business Day.
While I might have advised J.J. in May’s “Hey Babs” to stop talking about psychological safety at work, here in our community of readers and sharers, we still have more to talk about.
We need to talk about why we find psychological safety challenging, fall into the trap of giving it lip service, and in the end throw it into the trash can where all the other jargony fads end up.
Why?
A small part is because we make it needlessly complicated. as though we need to have an Amy Edmondson level of theoretical understanding to make it happen. I think we do this so that we don’t have to look at the larger part of the why. The larger part being that we are just managing to hold onto the daily demands of our life and work, and we fear that if we pull on one thread of why we find leading with psychological safety challenging, we will find ourselves looking into the mirror buck naked and not liking what we see.
But we need to have that look at ourselves and have an honest conversation about our own well-being and how we are showing up in the world.
Too many of us didn’t learn curiosity, candour, vulnerability, and listening growing up, attending school, or moving through our work places and careers.
Too many of us learned to armour up and develop self-preservation strategies to live with and hide our insecurities and pain.
All that we have known and learned plays out in our homes, in our communities, and in our work places. And the more positional authority and leadership responsibilities that we have in those spaces, the greater the impact and the rippling out of who we are and how we show up.
To show up for psychological safety with curiosity, candour, vulnerability, and listening requires self-awareness and ongoing internal work.
The type of internal work that is beyond the leadership retreat, the webinars, the best selling books, the tips and tricks, and the jargon. It is a daily act of self-discipline where wise mentors, counsellors, coaches, and friendships make all the difference. (Reflections on Picking Leadership Pals)
We need to do this because psychological safety isn’t a nice to have, it is an imperative for organizations and teams to be innovative, solutions-focused, and future-proofed.
3
Is social media just…boring now?
- Brian Klass, The Garden of Forking Paths, October 17, 2025.
I’m trying to figure out how to use social media successfully for furthering conversations about leadership, governance, and organizational development, but I’m a small fish in a large pond filled with big splashy fish and the pond keepers are sending me messages about how to splash like I’m a bigger fish (post more, boost your posts, buy exposure and so on) – it all makes me feel a bit icky.
Yet, here you are with me on Substack and LinkedIn and here I am thinking about a Youtube channel.
The thing is, we want to connect, get to know each other, build trust, and have a community we can turn to with our stories, ideas, jokes, accomplishments, and not-so-great days. And given that I’m not down the hall from you or running into you at Cow Town while buying dog food, social media is one way that I can get the ball rolling on that connection.
Two more things!
- I had started out writing about social media and potato chips. It was quite clever, but it went on and on, and finally in the end I realized that I was just wanting to break open the boxes of Halloween treats. So I did.
- Cory Doctorow has a new book about what is wrong with the internet. You can read about it here on his blog. That’s about all I know about the book other than my usual critique of potty-mouth titles. Let’s all pretend that I’m successfully pulling off a Dame Maggie Smith look to go with that critique.
4
Extras (slightly off topic, but not really)
- Setting the Record Straight on the Cowichan Title Decision from Khelsilem. In the spirit of taking a pause before throwing the pitch, this is a good backgrounder to share on an issue where there are many wild balls being thrown.
- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I’m a slow reader, and this is not a novel to be rushed, but I’m starting to think that it is not about a circus act. Seriously though, I’m thrilled to finally be reading it. It is rich and luscious with all the vulgarities, wonders, and frailties of humanity and I’m feeling rather zealous about sharing it with others. Considering that there are at least a dozen little-free-libraries in my neighbourhood, I feel the stirrings of a plan.
- Gentleman Jack. I have a penchant for period dramas and a great fondness for cheeky-winking confident women striding around in leather boots and gloves making competent business decisions. Yet, here I am on episode three waiting for this take on the diaries of Anne Lister to show a greater depth and range of the subject and of the times. So far the price of coal has had more interesting development than the characters.
You can find out more about my work as a coach and facilitator at Life and Work with Babs Kelly.