{"id":12856,"date":"2018-04-28T22:52:01","date_gmt":"2018-04-29T05:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getlighthouse.com\/blog\/?p=12856"},"modified":"2024-05-02T14:53:08","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T14:53:08","slug":"psychological-safety-innovative-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getlighthouse.com\/blog\/psychological-safety-innovative-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Prioritize Psychological Safety to have an Innovative Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

The huge success of Google and their Adwords product has allowed them to ask some of the biggest questions that every company wants to know. None are bigger than the age-old, \"What makes a great, successful team?\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Because they have the money ($32 billion in revenue), resources (dedicated People Ops and Analytics<\/a> orgs), and scale (over 60,000 employees) they spent millions studying what makes <\/span>high-performing teams work.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

One of their researchers, Julia Rozovsky, identified <\/span>patterns of behavior<\/span><\/a> that separates their worst teams (Team A) from their great ones (Team B):<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Team A [is] filled with smart people, all optimized for peak individual efficiency. But the group's norms discourage equal speaking; there are few exchanges of the kind of personal information that lets teammates pick up on what people are feeling or leaving unsaid.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

...In contrast, on Team B... all the team members speak as much as they need to. They are sensitive to one another's moods and share personal stories and emotions. While Team B might not contain as many individual stars, the sum will be greater than its parts.\u201d<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As it turns out, their best performing teams provided an environment where people were enthusiastic about sharing ideas and solving problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Google's research from 2011<\/a> showed that teams with an open-minded culture, or psychological safety, were more likely to achieve success in a project. [Ed. note: Some of their recent problems likely stem from straying from their own findings.]\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

While you want to foster open communication, be wary of promoting toxic positivity<\/a>, which emphasizes happiness over realism. True psychological safety means welcoming critical perspectives as well, allowing for more robust solutions.<\/p>\n

Bad Teams are a Growing Problem<\/b><\/h3>\n

The <\/span>Project Management Institute (PMI)<\/span><\/a> reported that project success is at its lowest in years. \u00a0<\/span>In their report, <\/span>\"The High Cost of Low Performance,\"<\/span><\/i><\/a> they found that fewer major projects were completed on time and within budget in 2016, than in 2012. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"psychological<\/span><\/p>\n

They reported that, \"$122 million [are] wasted for every $1 billion invested due to poor project performance, a 12% increase over last year.\u201d<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>The 3,000+ project managers, senior executives, and corporate leaders they surveyed revealed that most projects fail due to these reasons:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"without<\/p>\n


\n<\/span>Across the range of reasons, a common theme emerges: projects fail because teams don't know how to communicate, organize, and prioritize. And this occurs, because<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>people struggle to work together, because they lack the psychological safety to communicate.<\/p>\n

As you face new and complex problems in your business, you need to create a culture where employees are excited about finding solutions together, and comfortable confronting issues as they arise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Managers Need to Create Psychological Safety to have Great Teams (and how to do it)<\/h1>\n

Let's start with a simple definition. <\/span>Psychological safety<\/span> is defined as<\/a> the ability to, <\/span>\"show and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career.\"<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Workplaces that prioritize this are providing emotional safety nets. Employees feel free to express their ideas and opinions without punishment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This causes them to constantly innovate. They feel empowered to take risks, have candid discussions, and brainstorm creative solutions. To them, failures are learning experiences and confronting issues leads to positive outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Believe it or not, even Steve Jobs was a fan of this, when he had \"Cauldron\" meetings<\/a>, even if he never knew or used the term.<\/p>\n

Psychological safety's measurable benefits<\/h3>\n

This attitude and comfort level is crucial to solving new, uncertain, and complex problems. <\/span>Gallup <\/span><\/a>finds that psychological safety can lead to a variety of benefits including: <\/span>\"27% reduction in turnover, a 40% reduction in safety incidents, and a 12% increase in productivity.\"<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

But as explained in our post about <\/span>constructive discontent<\/span><\/a>, most workplaces don't have this. Many employees don't speak up nor disagree out of fear of losing their jobs, or just as bad, learned helplessness<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

That's why it's important to make a conscious effort to ensure you and your teams have psychological safety. <\/span><\/p>\n

Today, we show you how.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"psychological<\/span><\/p>\n

1) Make Psychological Safety a Part of Your Culture<\/b><\/h2>\n

Implementing psychological safety can be very hard. <\/span>Gallup's<\/span><\/a> Jake Herway learned this while working with a client organization. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He noticed that employees were very hesitant to express their ideas: \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"...The team still felt too much uncertainty to be fully engaged. It was clear to me that no one in the department felt safe defending or actively pursuing a new idea, an opinion or a criticism<\/strong> -- they were worried about their job. The environment wasn't negative; it included plenty of cordial interaction and can-do spirit in person. But it was unproductive once real work began.\" <\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, he developed an exercise that urged employees to be more open about their thoughts and feelings. They were asked to explain how their individual efforts impacted the team. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here are the sample questions:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What can your team count on you for? <\/span><\/em><\/li>\n
  2. What is your team's purpose? <\/span><\/em><\/li>\n
  3. What is the reputation you aspire to have? <\/span><\/em><\/li>\n
  4. What do you need to do differently to achieve that reputation and fulfill your purpose? <\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    One by one, the employees started to explain how they contributed to projects. Then, their team members shared gratitude for their efforts. Soon, the workers felt appreciated and highly valued. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Engraining it in their culture<\/h3>\n

    The next step was to make sessions like this a formal part of the culture. Herway asked more questions: <\/span><\/p>\n