By Blogger Ben - Psychological Safety In Teams

 

Psychological safety in teams

 

I recall when starting my role as a manager of a new team, we sat in a team meeting and I asked my team the following question, ‘Tell me about a mistake that you made at work this week.’ For a team that was difficult to keep quiet on most occasions, there was an unusual silence, followed by nervous laughter. ‘Are you serious?’ one of them asked me - ‘Is this a trick question?’

 

You see the thing is, it wasn't a trick question it was actually a genuine one. I figured that we don't have time to make all the mistakes ourselves and therefore, what an opportunity to learn from others mistakes; in the same way that they can learn from ours. But the main reason I wanted to ask the question was to send a clear message to my team - this is a team where not only are you going to make mistakes, but crucially its ok to make mistakes - because we are human and the danger comes in not recognising that.

 

I have been in teams where it didn't ‘feel’ ok to make a mistake; where it wasn't an environment that felt safe to open up, when something had gone wrong. Those kinds of teams can be dangerous teams and breed dangerous behaviour - clearly the opposite to feeling that you can speak about something going wrong, is the feeling that you can’t - so you don’t. In this instance there is no opportunity to de-brief, to look at what lead to a situation that maybe on another occasion, could be avoided or handled differently; making it far more likely for that ‘mistake’ to happen again.

 

Often in work systems, there can develop a ‘blame’ culture - something goes wrong and we need to find out who is responsible and hold them to account. Not for one minute am I saying that accountability is not important - but what I am saying is, that as leaders we cannot expect to have it both ways. We cannot expect members of our teams to always ‘get it right,’ neither can we expect them to feel comfortable enough to tell us when maybe they ‘got it wrong’ if we have not created the culture and safety within our team to be able to do so.

 

What feelings come to mind for you, if I asked you the question of thinking back to a mistake you made in your work. Or asking myself. For me, I can feel that dreaded feeling of realising something I had missed, and the panic of not quite knowing how to manage it or who I could speak to about it. I can tangibly feel the fear of what the outcome may be if I speak up about it. That is a feeling that is natural in those situations, and in some cases, I guess maybe even appropriate. However, what can be controlled is the response that we are met with in those moments and the responsibility we have as leaders/ managers to our teams.

 

So how do we do it? How do we ensure that the teams we lead or are a part of, are teams where there is psychological safety? Where there is a safe space for people to be able to own a mistake and speak in confidence when something's gone wrong; that they will be met with someone who is willing to walk that through with them appropriately, de-brief carefully and ensure that learning is fruitful, helpful and not judgmental.

 

One of my favourite quotes is from Jacinda Arden, Prime Minister of New Zealand and was her response to the question asked of her, about the qualities that had underpinned her path to her leadership role. She responded by saying, “Kindness, and not being afraid to be kind, or to focus on, or be really driven by empathy…..we’ve placed over time so much emphasis on notions of assertiveness and strength, that we probably have assumed that it means you can’t have those other qualities of kindness and empathy. And yet, when you think about all of the challenges that we face in the world, that’s probably the quality we need the most.”

 

Being kind doesn't mean lying or hiding the truth. Some of the most difficult conversations I have had in any of the roles or teams I have been in have been honest, difficult and heart -breaking at times. But they have also included kindness, grace and care. They have to. It is our duty as managers and leaders to ensure that happens and to lead by example in the way that we want these conversations to happen in our organisations when also lead by others.

 

As a manger and a leader of a team, it is my role to notice what needs to be addressed as well as what has been managed well. You could say that for leaders the biggest risk is having to manage what has gone wrong and therefore maybe this takes up the focus. But how about starting from point where we know the majority of things go right? That there is a context for mistakes and sometimes that context includes us, as part of the system.

 

Not sold on it yet? According to (Robins; 2019), when staff are appreciated, they are 43% more effective and staff who feel recognised are 23% more effective in their role. Now if that doesn't persuade us, nothing will.