Safety First! Use the Power of Psychological Safety to Build Winning Teams
Psychological safety has become the center of many conversations around the world. But is it a fad, or just another buzzword? Firsthand, I emphatically believe that it is the core of building a successful team. I’ve worked with groups that were struggling, silent, not sharing ideas, following orders, miserable, with a huge turnover rate, terrible quality of deliverables, and working overtime on projects that were deemed as failing. With a lot of love, respect, and caring about the team and the humans that the team is made of, I have watched them grow and form into powerful entities full of innovative thoughts and successful sprints. Working less, they produced more than they ever had before and became leading teams in their space.
How is this possible? How can a team put in less hours but produce more for the exact same application? How do you bring a team from struggling and miserable to performing at a high rate and having fun -even looking forward to work every day?
It starts with understanding the basics of human nature. It starts with you. Imagine Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs first. In Maslow’s Hierarchy, you need to have your base needs (food, shelter and then physical safety, security) covered before you can begin to move to the next stages of psychological needs (relationships, feelings of accomplishments) or even further to the top level of of the hierarchy called self actualization where the person reaches their full potential. Essentially, If you are in a place where you are looking for your base needs secured, then you are not able to think clearly, to be innovative, to be your best most creative and enlightened self. Think of a time when you were in a toxic environment. Your thoughts became survival thoughts. You did the tasks assigned to you. Robotic and fearful, you likely could not think of much else.
When we are in this toxic space, the amygdala in our brain which controls the flight or fight response is triggered and sends out signals to release adrenaline (also called epinephrine) and shut down higher levels of thinking. We can only survive. It leads us right into the Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. The absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. How can we not have these negative side effects? We are after all, human.
Google invested in a study called Project Aristotle to understand what made winning teams. With all of Google’s resources, they studied 180 teams over two years to find the common factors of success. Surprisingly to some, the results did not show great superstars on a team, nor the amount of resources piled on, but team collaboration with everyone sharing the same talking space. The teams that defined their success had psychological safety, they could depend on each other, they had structure and clarity into their work, they felt like they were making an impact, and they found personal meaning in their work. These are the foundations of a successful team.
There are many thought leaders studying this phenomenon. One of my favorites is Dr. Timothy Clark who defined the progression of successful teams in simple terms. First, people need to feel safe and included, then they need to feel safe to learn and next, safe to contribute and finally safe to challenge the status quo. To break this down, teams need to feel safe to be able to share their ideas together and offer new innovative thoughts that may move the group to the next level.
How do we implement psychological safety then? This is where a leader defines themselves as a manager of tasks and deadlines or a leader that brings up those around them. Explain the importance of psychological safety to the teams, explain why it matters to you and to them. Allow weakness, understand humanity. Show your own weaknesses and that it is ok when ideas fail. Over and over ask for ideas and talk them through. When an idea fails, use it as a win! Talk to the teams about how we can learn from the loss, learn how to be better! Find everyone’s individual motivator, help them grow it. Praise the group, not an individual. Encourage equal communication time in meetings, perhaps anonymously if needed. Explain the value behind the project, share the vision of how it will help them achieve their goals. Talk to people one on one, get to know them, their motivations. Allow for weaknesses, and never single someone out for a fault in front of others. Care. Be Human.
Delve in deeper with this great material and for tips for psychological safety as you begin your journey to understand psychological safety:
Tony Robbins “Unleash the Power Within”
Patrick Lencioni “The Five Disfunctions of a Team”
Timothy Clark “The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation”
Harvard Business Review: High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety. Here’s How to Create It
Tony Robbins: Do You Need to Feel Significant?