“Safe, Significant, and Situated” – Getting to Better: Elevating Human Potential at Work and in Life

In episode 410, host Mike Petrusky speaks with Stephen de Groot, President & Co-Founder of Brivia and author of Getting to Better: A New Model for Elevating Human Potential at Work and in Life, about creating environments where individuals feel safe, significant, and situated so they can reach their full potential. Stephen shares his philosophy on leadership, values alignment, workplace culture, and human development. He argues that many workplace challenges come from a disconnect between stated values and daily behaviors. Throughout the conversation, he offers practical strategies for helping leaders create the conditions where people can grow, contribute, and perform at their best.

Agenda

• Why values and behaviors must align
• How innovation grows through learning and adaptation
• What creates conditions for people to reach their potential

What you need to know: Workplace takeaways

Takeaway 1: Innovation starts with growth and adaptation

Many people associate innovation with dramatic change or thinking outside the box. Stephen offers a different perspective, describing innovation as an ongoing process of learning, adapting, and growing. Organizations become more innovative when they create environments where people can evolve through experience, feedback, and new ideas rather than waiting for perfect solutions.

As Stephen explains, “Innovation is simply growth and adaptation and learning.” By embracing that mindset, workplace leaders can build teams that remain flexible, resilient, and better equipped to navigate constant change.

Takeaway 2: Values only matter when behavior matches the message

Stephen believes one of the biggest challenges in today’s workplace is the gap between what organizations say they value and how people actually experience the culture. Displaying values on a wall is easy. Demonstrating them consistently through decisions, communication, and leadership behavior is much harder.

He suggests a simple three-step approach:

• Identify the value
• Develop a shared understanding of it
• Practice behaviors that align with it

When leaders consistently model the values they promote, employees trust the message. When they don’t, engagement, morale, and credibility suffer.

Takeaway 3: Trust grows through honest communication

Communication remains one of the most common workplace challenges, but Stephen argues the issue is often less about communication frequency and more about communication quality. Employees and leaders frequently talk about problems instead of discussing them directly with the people involved.

Building trust requires leaders to create environments where employees feel comfortable sharing feedback, expressing concerns, and asking difficult questions. Stephen emphasizes that effective leaders demonstrate the confidence, capability, and calm needed to have those conversations. When people feel heard and respected, workplace relationships become stronger and collaboration becomes easier.

Takeaway 4: People perform best when they feel safe, significant, and situated

The right conditions allow potential to reveal itself, so one of Stephen’s core frameworks centers on three conditions that help people thrive: feeling safe, significant, and situated. Safety means employees feel comfortable speaking up. Significance means they believe their contributions matter. Being situated means they understand expectations, processes, and what comes next.

As Stephen explains, “When they feel safe, significant, and situated, those are the three conditions that we can create in our relationships and in our work environment where people actually show up.”

He also challenges the common idea of “unlocking” potential, arguing that potential is revealed when people are given the environment and support needed to demonstrate what they can do. As he reminds listeners, “Your potential is not your performance.” The conditions people experience today should not limit how leaders view what they may be capable of accomplishing tomorrow.

Workplace management insights

• Innovation requires continuous learning, adaptation, and growth.
• Shared values need clear definitions and consistent behaviors.
• Trust strengthens when leaders invite and act on feedback.
• Honest conversations improve workplace relationships and culture.
• Employees contribute more when they feel safe and valued.
• Predictability and clarity help people understand expectations.
• Potential is revealed when organizations create the right conditions for success.

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