Transform Your Culture: From Bullying Risk to Psychological Safety
A comprehensive audit revealing where your organization sits on the bullying curve—plus a roadmap to become an accredited We Care Workplace™
- Understand systemic factors driving bullying behaviors
- Evidence-based assessment and accreditation framework
The Hidden Culture Crisis
The Curve, Not The Category
Bullying isn’t a fixed identity—it’s a position on a behavioral curve shaped by individual stress and organizational context. Most organizations have no way to measure where they are.
Systemic Blindness
Traditional approaches focus on individual perpetrators while missing the scarcity, role ambiguity, and leadership behaviors that create bullying climates.
Crisis Management Only
Organizations react to bullying complaints instead of designing systems that prevent behaviors from sliding toward the harmful end of the curve.
Vilifying the Victim
Bullies often Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim & Offender (DARVO jFreyd 1990) to avoid accountability by denying the abuse, attacking the victim for confronting them and reversing roles to play the victim themselves.
Your Dream. Our Mission.
The Hidden Culture Crisis
Workplace bullying isn’t just about “bad apples”—it’s a systemic issue driven by scarcity, stress, and organizational design. During restructures, high-pressure periods, or rapid growth, even good people can slide toward bullying behaviors when the context pushes them there.
The Workplace Bullying Audit & Accreditation
Evidence-based assessment and systemic intervention design
The Workplace Bullying Audit is a comprehensive diagnostic that maps your organization’s position on both the individual behavior curve and the contextual pressure curve, revealing where bullying risks are highest and designing interventions that address root causes, not just symptoms.
- Assess individual and collective positions on the bullying behavior curve
- Identify systemic factors (scarcity, role ambiguity, leadership behaviors) that push people toward harmful behaviors
- Design evidence-based interventions targeting context, not just individuals
- Build accredited bullying-aware culture with measurable outcomes
- Create sustainable systems that maintain psychological safety during stress
A framework grounded in behavioral science and evolutionary psychology
Understanding The Bullying Curves
Bullying isn’t binary. It’s a curve shaped by three dimensions: Individual resilience / sensitivity, Culture norms / practices, and Organizational context / pressure.
individual Curve
Where people sit based on stress, trauma history, resilience, and current pressures
Culture Curve
Leadership norms, behaviour and acceptable practices in the organisation
Context Curve
Organizational pressure—scarcity, ambiguity, leadership behavior, restructure stress
Interaction Risk
Where people sit based on stress, trauma history, resilience, and current pressures
Intervention Points
Design systems that shift both curves left toward psychological safety
Competing Interests
Look after the interests of those looking after not just themselves, but others and the business too
Your succession audit reveals these insights—and opens the door to ongoing talent intelligence.
Executive-level outcomes that matter to the board
What Your Organization Gains
Measurable culture transformation with accredited outcomes
Root Cause Analysis
Evidence-based identification of systemic factors (scarcity models, role ambiguity, leadership patterns) driving bullying behaviors in your culture.
Risk Identification
Identification of single-point-of-failure roles and fragile segments before they become crisis situations.
Bullying-Aware Accreditation
External validation as an organization committed to evidence-based bullying prevention, with ongoing measurement and improvement.
Sustained Culture Shift
Embedding practices that maintain healthy culture during restructures, growth, and high-stress periods—when bullying risk traditionally spikes.
Systemic Interventions
Tailored design of organizational changes that shift both curves left—from how you restructure to how you reward performance.
Leader Development
Training for leaders to recognize curve dynamics, intervene early, and model behaviors that create psychological safety even under pressure.
How It Works: The Audit & Accreditation Journey
A structured, evidence-based transformation process
Sprint 1: Curve Mapping (Weeks 1-3)
Comprehensive assessment of individual behaviors and organizational context using validated instruments, interviews, and behavioral data. Map where different teams, functions, and individuals sit on the curve.
Sprint 2: Root Cause Analysis (Weeks 4-5)
Deep dive into systemic factors: scarcity models, power dynamics, moral disengagement patterns, leadership behaviors, and organizational design elements pushing curves right.
Sprint 3: Intervention Design (Weeks 6-8)
Co-create evidence-based interventions targeting both individual support and systemic change—from restructure protocols to performance management redesign to leadership development.
Sprint 4: Implementation & Accreditation (Months 3-6)
Roll out interventions with measurement, provide leader training, establish ongoing monitoring systems, and complete bullying-aware accreditation with external validation and annual re-assessment.
Executive-level outcomes that matter to the board
Is This Right for Your Organization?
This audit and accreditation is designed for organizations who…
- Recognize that bullying is a systemic issue, not just a few "bad apples" to be removed
- Are experiencing or anticipating high-stress periods (restructures, rapid growth, market pressure) that historically spike bullying risk
- Want to move from reactive complaint management to proactive culture design
- Value evidence-based approaches rooted in behavioral science and organizational psychology
- Are committed to measuring and sustaining culture change, not just running a one-time training program
- Want external validation through accredited bullying-aware status to demonstrate culture commitment to employees, customers, and stakeholders
Transforming Organisations with Talent Intelligence
Why work with Martin
3 decades of Talent Development…
Martin Lewis Knowles brings 25+ years of organizational psychology and culture transformation expertise, combined with deep research into workplace bullying dynamics. His framework—understanding bullying as a curve shaped by individual and contextual factors—is grounded in evolutionary psychology, social dominance theory, and decades of organizational behavior research.
- Built and transformed cultures across 10,000+ employees in 30+ countries
- Extensive research into bullying dynamics, scarcity models, and moral disengagement
- Led organizations through high-pressure transitions (restructures, mergers, rapid growth) while maintaining psychological safety
- Evidence-based practitioner combining behavioral psychology, organizational design, and leadership development
- Published thought leader on workplace culture, behavioral change, and systemic intervention
Executive-level outcomes that matter to the board
Choose your engagement level
Three pathways to bullying-aware We Care Culture
Culture Diagnostic
Rapid assessment of bullying risk across one division or function, with curve mapping and prioritized intervention recommendations.
Full Audit & Accreditation
Complete 6-month program: curve mapping, root cause analysis, intervention design, implementation support, and bullying-aware accreditation.
Enterprise Transformation
Organization-wide culture transformation with multi-year accreditation, ongoing measurement, leader certification, and embedded systems for sustained change.
Platinum Talent Transformation
Full Enterprise Transformation based on your requirements covering: self-assessments, psychometrics, team talent discovery workshops, development, experience, acquisition, onboarding, off boarding and mobility management.
Common concerns addressed
FAQ
Traditional training focuses on individual behaviors—identifying bullies and teaching people to report them. Our approach treats bullying as a systemic issue shaped by organizational design, scarcity models, and contextual pressure. We address root causes (how you structure work, rewards, promotions, restructures) not just symptoms. This leads to sustained culture change, not temporary awareness.
The curve framework recognizes that bullying isn’t a fixed identity—it’s a position on a behavioral distribution. Most people can slide toward bullying behaviors when individual stress (trauma, exhaustion, fear) combines with organizational pressure (scarcity, ambiguity, threat). By mapping both the individual curve and contextual curve, we identify intervention points that shift the entire system toward psychological safety.
Bullying-aware accreditation is external validation that your organization has completed evidence-based assessment, designed and implemented systemic interventions, and established ongoing measurement of bullying risk. It demonstrates commitment to employees, customers, and stakeholders that you’re proactively building psychological safety—not just reacting to complaints. Annual re-assessment maintains accreditation.
Actually, that’s exactly when it matters most. Research shows bullying behaviors spike during restructures, rapid growth, and resource scarcity—when the contextual curve shifts right. Our audit identifies how these high-pressure periods push people toward harmful behaviors, and we design interventions specifically for those moments: restructure protocols that maintain dignity, communication strategies that reduce ambiguity, and leadership behaviors that hold the line on respect even under stress.
The audit can run alongside your existing complaint processes—in fact, it often reveals why complaints keep happening. While HR manages individual cases, we address the underlying systemic issues creating the conditions for bullying. Many organizations find that once systemic factors are addressed, complaint volume drops significantly because the culture no longer tolerates or creates bullying dynamics.
We track both leading indicators (curve position shifts, leadership behavior changes, policy implementation) and lagging indicators (bullying complaint rates, turnover in high-risk areas, psychological safety scores, engagement during high-pressure periods). The goal isn’t zero conflict—it’s shifting the entire distribution left so that even under stress, behaviors stay within the psychologically safe range.
Ready to Build a We Care Culture?
If you're ready to move beyond reactive complaint management to proactive culture design, let's talk.
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We mostly work remotely using Zoom or MS Teams for 121 meetings, coaching and training services.
However, some meetings & training is best face to face and we can deliver onsite training or consulting to suit.
- Intro Calls: Mon to Fri 10am-4pm GMT
- Coaching: Mon to Fri 40m / 60m available
- Bitesize: Mon to Fri 10am-12noon, 2pm-4pm
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- Consulting: 1-12week Sprints
- Contracting: 3m, 6m, 12m
