A multi-year study by Google’s People Analytics reveals psychological safety is the single most important factor differentiating high performance teams from all the rest.
What is team based psychological safety and how do we create it?
What is Psychological Safety
Many of us are all too familiar with teams that don’t function well. Meetings are boring. One member talks ad nauseam but adds little or no value to discussions. People tune him out, but no one gives him feedback. There’s a top dog at the table and no one disagrees with him, out loud. Others try to claim authority by talking over each other. People are tuned out of the meeting and tuned into their mobile devices. It’s more important not to say something that will be judged negatively than it is to dig in, get messy, make mistakes and work together. People express dissatisfaction with these dynamics during informal “after-the-meeting” meetings.
When psychological safety exists, people actively listen to each other. They build on one another’s ideas, much the same way musicians improvise, by attending to, picking up on, then complementing the previous player’s music and emotions.
When people complement one another, together they, and their ideas/products, function better and enhance or improve the overall effect.
People on high performing teams are also more engaged and gain more satisfaction from their work.
Creating Psychological Safety
Two things matter most.
- Group norms
- Caring relationships
How to create group norms. Identify existing norms if you’re leading an already established group.
“If we asked an outsider to observe how we behave with each other, what would she report?” Do this exercise anonymously. Then read the responses to the group and have them endorse what fits.
Discuss and decide which norms to continue, stop and add to help the group increase:
- Psychological safety
- Engagement
- Creativity
- Effective problem solving
When forming a new group ask which norms support the 4 outcomes.
Suggestions:
- No interrupting
- Listen to understand
- Our brains often shift to judgement. Notice and let go.
- Share the air time
- Speak to add value and substance
- Be respectful
How to implement group norms. Most groups jump to work without establishing norms. But establishing them is not enough. You also need to make sure they’re implemented. This calls for taking time-out-of-time, to discuss how the group is working together. Two basic time-out-of-time recipes appear below. As will all recipes feel free to improvise.
Set aside 10 minutes, more if needed, at the end of every 2nd meeting, and less often as the team matures.
Ask people to:
- Rate how well the team is following the norms. Do this publicly, then
- Discuss which norms are contributing to the desired outcomes and which norms, if any, need to be changed
- Work in groups of 2 or 3 to provide each person with specific feedback about instances where they’re following or violating the norms
Alternately, each member has two flags, different colors. Throwing a yellow flag to the center means a norm has just been violated. A blue flag indicates the group just did an excellent job at following the norms. The person(s) who throw a flag share what they observed. If helpful, the group pauses for a brief discussion about what they need to do differently.
Caring Relationships
Caring relies on emotional connection. Begin meetings with a 10 minute emotion check. People choose a word or short phrase to describe how they’re feeling.
- Energized
- Excited
- Stressed
- Frustrated
- Happy
- Concerned about a family member
- Carrying a lot of my shoulders
Leave a respectful pause after each person’s response. At the end, people say more about their situation and follow up with other members by asking questions about what’s going on.