(Newswire.net — April 17, 2021) — What makes an effective team?
Is it stacking your team with superstars? Is it the combined years of experience between the members? The answer is neither of those things.
Google’s People Operations set out to answer this question using data and analysis. They found out that the most vital dynamic for successful teams is psychological safety.
What is psychological safety at work?
Have you ever had a meeting where the members are just going along with everything you’re saying? They’re not asking the questions that you hope they’d ask. You’re not getting any valuable input, and you’re getting the impression that they’re afraid to voice out their opinions.
Then your team may not be psychologically safe.
A lack of psychological safety in the work environment can be detrimental to the organization. Let’s examine what psychological safety is and how you can help foster it as a leader.
What Is Psychological Safety?
Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson first coined the term “psychological safety.” She stated that it’s a shared conviction that interindividual risk-taking is safe within the team.
As a grad student, she studied medical teams at hospitals to discover the best-performing groups’ qualities. She was surprised to find out that the teams with better performance seemed to be making more errors than the underachieving groups.
She realized that the best teams weren’t necessarily making more errors. But these groups were acknowledging these errors and discussing them more often.
What Makes For a Psychologically Safe Team?
According to Dr. Timothy Clark, psychological safety in the workplace has four stages. These are inclusion, learner, contributor, and challenger safety.
Inclusion safety is the feeling of belonging and being accepted for who you are. Learner safety is about not being afraid of asking questions to learn and grow.
Contributor safety is being confident to make a meaningful contribution to the group. Challenger safety is having the sense of security to give and receive feedback. Any member should feel safe to challenge the existing situation if warranted.
What You Can Do As an Employer and Team Leader
Everyone in the team is responsible for promoting and nurturing psychological safety. However, as a leader, it’s up to you to start the ball rolling. You can make changes to help everyone reach the stage where they’re comfortable to speak up their ideas or questions.
Start with the most basic but crucial element of communication: active listening. Please focus on the person talking and what they’re telling you to ensure that they feel valued. Try to improve listening by getting rid of distractions such as smartphones.
Create a safe work environment where everyone’s comfortable in their own skins. As they say, there are no stupid questions. Encourage suggestions, even some that might be out of this world, and never judge or place blame.
Have an open mindset that’s geared towards growth. Let people feel safe to experiment and make mistakes. Rather than criticism, feedback can strengthen and develop ideas that seem weak or impractical at first glance.
Teamwork Begins By Building Trust
What is psychological safety? It’s the trust that all members share that there are no bad consequences for speaking up their minds. Every member can bounce off questions, ideas, and concerns for the good of the group.
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