Teams that Trust – Triumph: Why Psychological Safety matters to your bottom line
Remember when you were on a team and really enjoyed it. What were the meetings like and how did the group communicate? Which team did you most enjoy being in? Which team that you were a part of was most effective? Were you more effective when you felt safe to be yourself and express yourself?
Being on a team can be a dream or a nightmare.
All of us have mixed experiences when being part of a team or group or when leading them. What makes an efficient team? Talent alone is nowhere near enough of an attribute to make an effective team. It has been proved through various scientific research that the best teams share ideas.in a safe atmosphere where failure is viewed as progress- when a member of the team feels like it is okay to share an idea without knowing if it will in fact work out. In fact they are willing to share the acorn of an idea knowing that others will help it grow and develop it to something better.
Using one´s strengths
On an ideal team, each person is willing to speak their truth and give feedback when things are good, bad or indifferent. They speak humbly with empathy,,are open to feedback and opportunities to learn and have a desire to improve. Team members are willing to speak up if and when they spot a potential risk. What they spotted may be incorrect, but mistakes are not held against each other. Each team member realises that they need to include, listen and challenge others to be more effective. The leaders of these teams listen in order to learn, grow and develop the team. So that they can do more with less stress.
Think of teams that you’ve experienced, inside or outside of work, that keep quiet, don’t share ideas and avoid speaking up, even when they know the answer or see a problem looming.
Danger- imminent disaster, no?
Imagine a ship where the captain knows they will hit an iceberg but they fear upsetting the owner of the ship and losing their jobs- in case they are wrong.
Imagine a IT guy having had the experience at a previous job of a similar project and knowing what went wrong but not having the safety to share this information because of the hierarchy on the team.
Wouldn’t you want your team to help make you more successful? You must give them permission to fail and to try again.
The people in these teams can be merciless if someone makes an error The result is that no one speaks up, no-one shares ideas and you became extinct like Kodak film. Leaders of teams like this listen only to correct, react and delegate. These companies become Irrelevant in today’s VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world without innovative team.which ultimately drives ‘safe’ behaviours that don’t maximise performance, rarely create fresh ideas and never surpass targets. The leaders of these teams listen in order to respond, fix and tell. This team will never fulfil its potential because the team has low Psychological Safety. That sense of not feeling safe and supported within a team or group gets in the way of performance, innovation, learning, and personal success.
The ‘Number One’ factor in team effectiveness
The NUMBER ONE factor in team effectiveness is “Psychological Safety”.
This insight is the result of almost 30 years of research by Amy Edmondson, at Harvard Business School, supported and reinforced by an extensive two-year research programme (Project Aristotle) across 15,000 employees at Google read about Project Aristotle in The New York Times magazine).
At Smart Coaching & Training we measure team effectiveness across four dimensions:
Attitudes to risk and failure:
• the degree to which it is permissible to make mistakes
Open conversations
• the degree to which difficult and sensitive topics can be discussed openly
Willingness to help
• the degree to which people are willing to help one another
Inclusivity and diversity
• the degree to which people can be themselves, and be welcomed for this. The degree that others can be different and the tolerance for it.
You can be do the ¨AQai Adaptability Quotient test to see how your team members respond under stress and in change situations and then our coach can help you with a plan to increase your team’s Adaptability IQ score so that it is agile and able to keep up.
We deliver coching support, diagnostic tools and a Psychological Safety Workshop to assess your current level of Psychological Safety and help you plan to improve it
Workshops will train a ¨Yes, And¨ mindset, will have role plays and improvisation LAB Experiences with Serious Games where your team practices the mindset of an adaptive team that supports one another.
Your team practices feedback sessions, how to present information and how to create rapport so they approach the team prepared and with confidence that they are delivering their ideas clearly.
Team that trust – triumph.
See “Make your team Psychologically Safe Workshop” Here and help build tthat atmosphere of trust, trial and triumph with interactive, dynamic training .
Written by Jessica Brietenfeld and Simon Grayson , © 2021 Smart Coaching & Training Ltd
