Season 5 Episode 9: Partnering vs. Practicing: The Hidden Bias in Professional Crisis Work
About This Episode
Join us from San Miguel, Azores, Ruth’s paternal ancestral home, as David and Ruth take a hard look at how performance metrics, KPIs, and ideas of “professionalism” can quietly reinforce bias, distance us from survivors, and reward procedural compliance over real-world impact.
We explore what it means to measure what actually matters—not just outputs, paperwork, or policy adherence, but survivor partnership, meaningful engagement, and changes that genuinely increase safety, dignity, and choice.
Together, we unpack how institutional metrics can unintentionally reproduce power imbalances, how professional norms can become barriers to authentic connection, and why shifting what we count is essential to shifting how we practice.
This conversation moves beyond critique and into possibility. We examine how organizations can:
Redefine success through survivor voice and lived experience
Build accountability systems that value partnering, not performance theater
Move from expert-driven, top-down practice to impact-based, end-user-informed work
Support professionals to reflect on bias—personal and systemic—without shame
We close with concrete action steps for change, including survivor-centered performance measures, tools for reflecting on professional bias, and ways institutions can align training, supervision, and policy with authentic partnership.
This episode is for practitioners, supervisors, leaders, and systems that are ready to stop measuring activity—and start measuring impact.
Additional Resources
Safe & Together Institute’s domestic abuse–informed trainings
Safe & Together Institute’s upcoming events
David Mandel’s book Stop Blaming Mothers and Ignoring Fathers: How to Transform the Way We Keep Children Safe from Domestic Violence