The Ladder of Vulnerability
Your toolkit to measuring vulnerability at work: 20 common vulnerable behaviors, ranked by perceived risk from a survey of 2,025 individuals.
Have you ever raised your hand to ask a question and then put it down abruptly? Why did you do that? You did that because your last-second risk/reward calculation put you on the punished side of vulnerability.
Human interaction is a vulnerable activity. If you’re interacting with other humans, you’re at risk of harm or loss. But the same exposure that brings the possibilities of rejection, ridicule, and embarrassment also brings the possibilities of connection and fulfillment, and the joys and satisfactions of the human experience.
Take human connection. You can’t experience deep belonging if you can’t be your authentic self. If you’re in a toxic culture or dehumanizing environment, you have to make a choice: muscle through the fear and be your authentic self, or modulate your behavior to reduce your risk. Whether you muscle or modulate depends largely on whether your vulnerable behavior was rewarded or punished in the past.
As a rule, humans step into vulnerability to feel connected and step out of it to feel protected.
In the workplace, vulnerability is not only necessary for inclusion; it’s central to learning, contribution, and innovation. Ultimately, an organization’s entire value-creating process is built on it. Vulnerability may be a universal condition, but how, when, and to what degree we feel vulnerable is deeply personal. The perception of risk varies based on factors such as personality, lived experience, acquired socialization, work environment, norms, job role, colleagues, and your direct supervisor.
Where our vulnerabilities collide
Our vulnerabilities are shaped by past experiences, beliefs, perceptions, fears, and even our goals. They affect how we behave and perform, how we think and feel, and how we interact with others. We can’t entirely avoid the parts of life that make us feel vulnerable, but we sure do want to avoid discomfort and fear.
There are some acts of vulnerability that feel more vulnerable to us than others. We call this The Ladder of Vulnerability™, and you have a ladder that’s unique to you. That means that what’s vulnerable for you might be no big deal for someone else. The opposite is also true: what you expect to be easy for a member of your team may be debilitatingly difficult for them.
As individuals engage in acts of vulnerability in each of The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety™, they are often climbing a ladder of vulnerability. In other words, they feel an increasing level of personal exposure and risk associated with each stage. There are exceptions, but an act of vulnerability associated with Stage 4: Challenger Safety usually involves more risk than one associated with Stage 1: Inclusion Safety.
Measuring vulnerability at work
Our team set out to measure vulnerability at work by developing a comprehensive list of acts of vulnerability. We identified over 150 specific behaviors, including things like asking a question, pointing out a mistake, setting a boundary, apologizing, communicating bad news, saying no, admitting an error, or speaking with an accent. We then narrowed the list to 20 of the most common forms to account for the majority of vulnerable behaviors in the workplace.
Applying an 11-point scale, we surveyed 2,025 individuals from 834 organizations located throughout the world to measure the relative level of risk associated with each of the 20 behaviors, asking respondents to rate the personal risk they feel at work on a scale from 0 (no personal risk) to 10 (extremely high personal risk). The results reveal a fascinating empirical pattern in the way people experience vulnerability at work.
The purpose of this classification is to provide both a diagnostic and development tool for individuals and teams. If you can identify acts of vulnerability when they happen, as well as the response patterns that either reward or punish those acts of vulnerability, you will have a clearer understanding of the current state of psychological safety that exists on your team, and you will be better able to improve it.
Not all acts of vulnerability are created equal
The way team members perceive different vulnerable behaviors depends largely on whether those behaviors have been consistently rewarded or punished. Ultimately, rewarded vulnerability becomes the central mechanism for creating psychological safety and the key to a healthy and high performing culture.
Variation at the respondent level is significant as reflected in an overall average score of 4.1 and a standard deviation of 2.6. This high level of data dispersion shows that people both perceive and experience vulnerability differently. Yet the mean scores reveal an overall hierarchy of interpersonal risk in professional life, with average scores ranging from 5.6 at the high end to 2.7 at the low end. Here are the mean scores, listed highest to lowest, for the 20 acts of vulnerability:
| Act of vulnerability | Mean score |
|---|---|
| Giving an incorrect answer | 5.6 |
| Making a mistake | 5.3 |
| Expressing your emotions | 5.1 |
| Expressing disagreement | 4.8 |
| Pointing out a mistake | 4.6 |
| Challenging the way things are done | 4.6 |
| Sharing something personal | 4.5 |
| Asking for more resources | 4.1 |
| Raising a concern | 4.0 |
| Receiving feedback | 4.0 |
| Being your authentic self | 4.0 |
| Asking for help | 3.9 |
| Admitting you don’t know | 3.7 |
| Offering a different point of view | 3.7 |
| Trying something new | 3.6 |
| Accepting more responsibility | 3.5 |
| Interacting with other people | 3.4 |
| Clarifying expectations | 3.3 |
| Contributing to a discussion | 3.3 |
| Connecting with your team | 2.7 |
Why The Ladder of Vulnerability matters
What are the benefits of understanding how you and others experience vulnerability at work? Here are three ways The Ladder of Vulnerability will make your work and personal life more meaningful.
1. Increase self-awareness
Most people have never systematically measured their vulnerability. You may find that your internal barriers get in the way more than your external environment. Understanding the relative risk you assign to different vulnerable behaviors will help you to reflect on why, and what you can do to remove your fears and inhibitions. The better you understand your current approach to vulnerability, the better you will be able to engage in effective prosocial behaviors.
2. Increase empathy
Second, understanding the ladder of vulnerability sensitizes you to the vulnerability of others. You become more skilled at monitoring group dynamics and identifying vulnerable acts real time and then rewarding those behaviors to create higher levels of psychological safety. For example, I’ve watched a leader who listens carefully for even the most subtle signs of disagreement. He makes it a point to reward those early signals of dissent to further encourage the behavior.
3. Increase team effectiveness
Third, if you have a cultural problem on your team, the ladder of vulnerability can be a diagnostic tool to help you understand why the team is struggling and what to do about it. A helpful exercise is to have each member of your team take the Ladder of Vulnerability Self-Assessment. This will give you an overall profile of cultural health. If your team consistently punishes specific behaviors, discuss ways to reverse that pattern and reward those behaviors instead.
The full guide continues with the vulnerable behaviors across all four stages — a stage-by-stage breakdown of Inclusion, Learner, Contributor, and Challenger Safety, each with its “when you have it / when you don’t” signals, its own ladder data, and a complete list of acts of vulnerability for that stage — then closes with the rewarding vs. punishing section (threat detection, the fear response and the performance response, and the common instances of punished, neutral, and rewarded vulnerability) and the Ladder of Vulnerability Self-Assessment.
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