It isn’t what you think.
Have you ever wondered whether there was a magic bullet for helping your team perform at a high level?
Teamwork is so complex. There are many moving parts. Anytime humans are involved there are no simple answers. It turns out that there is a key to teamwork. It isn’t a magic bullet but it makes it possible to move into a state of high performance more easily.
Researchers at Google spent years investigating what really impacted on a team’s effectiveness. What they found was, what really mattered was less about who is on the team, and more about how the team worked together.
The number 1 result was that the psychological safety that individuals feel on the team is the most important factor for a team’s effectiveness.
Psychological safety refers to an individual’s perception of the consequences of taking an interpersonal risk or a belief that a team is safe for risk taking in the face of being seen as ignorant, incompetent, negative, or disruptive.
W. Edward Denning, author Out of Crisis (1982) and father of quality management thinking and process, said,
“No one can put in their best performance unless they feel secure.”
Modern brain science agrees. The brain processes a provocation by a boss, competitive co-worker, or dismissive subordinate as a life-or-death threat. The amygdala, the alarm bell in the brain, ignites the fight-or-flight response, hijacking higher brain centres. This “act first, think later” brain structure shuts down perspective and analytical reasoning. Quite literally, just when we need it most, we lose our minds. While that fight-or-flight reaction may save us in life-or-death situations, it handicaps the strategic thinking needed in today’s workplace.
In a team with high psychological safety, teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members. They feel confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea.
When safety is experienced a range or benefits flow. For instance:
- People are less likely to leave,
- They’re more likely to harness the power of diverse ideas from their teammates,
- They bring in more revenue,
- They’re rated as effective twice as often by executives.
Organisational behavioural scientist Amy Edmondson of Harvard University first introduced the concept of ‘psychological safety’ and defined it as “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”Taking a risk around your team members may sound simple. But asking a basic question like “what’s the goal of this project?” may make you sound like you’re out of the loop. It might feel easier to continue without getting clarification in order to avoid being perceived as ignorant.
To measure a team’s level of psychological safety, Edmondson asked team members how strongly they agreed or disagreed with these statements:
- If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you.
- Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues.
- People on this team sometimes reject others for being different.
- It is safe to take a risk on this team.
- It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
- No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts.
- Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized.
In her TED-ex talk Edmondson offers some simple things individuals can do to foster team psychological safety. Below are a couple of suggestions:
- Acknowledge your own fallibility.
- Frame the work as a learning problem, not an execution problem.
1. Acknowledge your own fallibility.
Many leaders think they need to project a strong, ‘having it all together’ persona. They also are used to giving instructions and taking charge. Ironically instead of creating safety it reduces it.
“Authoritarian behaviour reduces psychological safety. This hinders the ability for the team member to contribute everything they can to the collective effort.” Edmondson, Teaming
Creating the safety for the team often means that the team leader needs to model vulnerability. This might include admitting failings; talking about things a leader is not strong in/need support in or even mistakes.
A leader can make simple statements that encourage peers and subordinates to speak up, such as, “I may miss something — I need to hear from you.” Or “Last week I decided that we didn’t need to change the project timeline, I was wrong. Sorry, I should have listened to a couple of you earlier.”
The reason that showing your vulnerabilities first is so important is that others on the team are fearful of being seen as ignorant, incompetent, negative or disruptive.
If you want to build appropriate vulnerability within a team, one way is to use icebreakers at the beginning of meetings. Some might think this is all very touchy feely. Before you dismiss it realise there are very tangible business outcomes. When people feel safe and are okay to be vulnerable they are willing to speak up. When they speak up it could result in reduction of costs, mistakes not being made, problems being solved, or staff not leaving.
One of my favourite quotes on this topic is by author Joseph Grenny (Crucial Conversations) who says;
“The health of an organisation is measured by the lag time between when you feel it and discuss it.”
The longer it takes the less safe people feel, the bigger the issue becomes in the minds of people and communication breaks down.
2. Frame work as a learning problem, not an execution problem
If team members sense that you’re trying to blame them for something, you become their saber-toothed tiger. John Gottman’s research at the University of Washington shows that blame and criticism reliably escalate conflict, leading to defensiveness and — eventually — to disengagement. The alternative to blame is curiosity. If you believe you already know what the other person is thinking, then you’re not ready to have a conversation. Instead, adopt a learning mindset, knowing you don’t have all the facts.
Psychological safety and Accountability
It is not enough to only create psychological safety.
Psychological safety and accountability interact to produce a high-performing team in an environment where there’s uncertainty and interdependence. Leaders that allow for questions and discussions and also hold their employees accountable for excellence fall into the “learning zone,” or the high-performance zone.
By contrast, leaders who only hold their employees accountable for excellence without creating psychological safety fall into the “anxiety zone,” which can be dangerous.
And leaders who only create psychological safety without holding their employees accountable for excellence remain in the “comfort zone,” which isn’t typically the highest performing.
A combination of psychological safety and accountability is vital for teams to achieve their full potential.
Creating Psychological safety isn’t a magic bullet but it does move teams towards high performance better than anything else.
If you want to build trust in your team and in your leadership email me at craig@transformleader.com.au for a strategy call. I’ll help you pinpoint an intervention/s that will build trust.