A lady fell down the steps. Right next to me.
I think she was absent mindedly walking down the steps whilst looking at her phone
I rushed over to check her out and gave her my hand to help her get up.
She was ok, but I suspect her knees are going to hurt tomorrow
About 30 minutes before, I’d been standing on the platform wondering what I would do if someone fell down (this happens to me often!), and I was reminded of a book I recently read. It talked about the phenomenon of passers by and the experiments that have been done of someone lying on the pavement in a suit versus ragged, tatty clothes. People were more inclined to help the besuited person over the bedraggled.
The book said that you only need to get one person to help and that will encourage others to help. In that moment I thought, if it was me, I’d want that one person to be brave enough to help me. I also decided that whatever the situation, I too needed to be brave and be the helper and the ally.
Today I was talking to a colleague about my interest in self-awareness, feedback, civility and respect, psychological safety and work place behaviours. I guess this all links.
You don’t have to be a helper just when there’s physical harm happening, you can be a helper when there’s emotional harm happening too.
My Thursday thought? Be the brave helper or ally and model the behaviour you want to see in others
When you fall down the stairs what do you want the passer by to do for you?