The Link Between Psychological Safety and High-Performing Teams: Learning to Speak Up and Listen
How willing are you to talk about errors, be vulnerable, ask for help, receive help, and speak up?
Situation:
You meet somebody today. Do you think this person will naturally speak up about something that is on their mind? No, it will usually not happen. You might want to create a connection with that person first.
Now let’s look inside your team. How willing are you to talk about errors, be vulnerable, ask for help, receive help, and speak up?
This post is about the framework defined by Amy Edmondson in her book, “The Fearless Organization”, and it is a deep dive into this topic related to the “Seek - Listen-Speak” way of implementing psychological safety within Boeing company, a model created by the NeuroLedership Institute.
What is psychological safety?
Psychological safety is not there by default in your team. There is a need to build it up and maintain it. And no, in my opinion, it is not an easy job. It requires everyday practice, to become a habit and a lifestyle. For habits to be created, people deep AHA moments, to focus on one element at a time. So the key is to develop strong insights for this to happen.
Intentionally create psychological safety, it is not there by default!
Amy Edmondson says that psychological safety is a belief (explicit or implicit) that you can take interpersonal risks, particularly related to speaking up, and lived permission for candor conversations.
What happens when we are not having the impression of a psychologically safe environment?
People are afraid to speak up when they fear being excluded, which is painful. They are so scared of social threats like other persons treating them unfairly or attacking them publicly. Their status is important to them. Embarrassment is painful as well.
If you balance the potential threads, it might work for people to speak up. For example, if you are uncertain about a project's success and you have the need to speak up about it, you might balance the threat of other persons attacking you with the high relatedness you might have within your team. Knowing that your team values other people’s opinions and that you are doing this often in your team will balance the threat of speaking up and being attacked.
When people fail to speak up with their concerns or questions, it can also be that the physical safety of customers or employees is at risk, sometimes leading to the tragic loss of life. (in the medical areas, army areas, and so on).
A culture of silence is a dangerous culture.
Steps for creating psychological safety
Three interrelated practices help create psychological safety - setting the stage, inviting participation, and responding productively.
🎲 Whenever you are trying to get people on the same stage, with common goals and a shared appreciation for what they’re up against, you’re setting the stage for psychological safety.
Examples:
set expectations about failure, uncertainty, and interdependence to clarify the need for voice
emphasize the purpose, why it matters and for whom
🎲 Inviting participants to that people respond in a way that people find compelling and genuine is the second step. The goal is to lower what is usually a too-high bar for what’s considered appropriate participation. Adopting a mindset of situational humility and engaging in proactive inquiry are two essential behaviors that signal an invitation is genuine.
Examples:
acknowledge gaps
ask good questions
model intense listening
provide guidelines for the discussion
create confidence that every voice is welcomed
🎲 Productive responses are characterized by three elements: expressions of appreciation, destigmatizing failure, and sanctioning clear violations.
Examples:
listen
acknowledge and thank
look forward
offer help
orientation towards continuous learning
Benefits of creating a psychologically safe environment
The benefits of psychological safety are often unclear and delayed (i.e. avoiding an airplane collision) while the costs are tangible and immediate (people's irritation, anger, etc). As a result, we consistently underweight the benefits and overweight the costs.
Researches in psychological safety find positive benefits for learning, engagement, lower burn-out rates, and performance in a wide range of organizations.
The most successful teams are the ones that embrace the uncomfortable, as they speak up because they care about each other, have each other’s back, run experiments, and have low or no barriers between them.
One-phrase summary:
Intentionally create psychological safety, it is not there by default! Learning together to get on the same level of psychological safety is the key to creating performing teams that are happily working together.
Resources:
Your Brain at Work Podcast: The Neuroscience of Psychological Safety
“The Fearless Organization” book of Amy Edmondson
How can I help you here?
When relating this to a facilitator job, all parts of this framework fit perfectly with what a facilitator does when guiding a group of persons for a specific outcome. This is why working sessions guided by a professional facilitator make a huge difference in the life of people compared to moments in their normal work days.
I would be grateful to be able to help your team as well, starting by bringing awareness of psychological safety, by using this framework combined with a playful approach that invites even more to a candid conversation and deep outcomes.
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