How to foster psychological safety on your team, according to this month’s Team Ups
This month’s Team Ups were pretty meta: strangers came together to discuss taking risks in front of others. The theme was inspired by Google’s research into teams, which found that the most important trait of a successful team was psychological safety — that is, a state in which individuals feel safe sharing their ideas with the rest of the team. Our conversations in DC, LA, Portland, and Seattle uncovered a few important factors to consider when fostering psychological safety:
- Start with self-awareness. Before you can increase psychological safety on your team, examine your own strengths and weaknesses. Are you empathetic and a good judge of what issues are “ripe” to discuss at a given point in time? Do you approach problems by asking in the spirit of inquiry, or are you more inclined to start giving orders?
- Clarify expectations. Don’t just hope that people will volunteer information — sit everyone down to discuss the type of behavior you want to encourage as a team. This is also a good time to discuss what sort of limits you want to place on sharing, if any. What’s appropriate to discuss in the workplace, and what’s better left at home? How can you balance personal discussions with the need to get work done?
- Be mindful of power dynamics.Generational divides, gender imbalances, differences in salary and tenure, HR’s relationship to the rest of the organization — there’s no shortage of obstacles to building a psychologically safe environment. Watch for how these play out on your team, and help others become more aware of how they’re perceived by the group.
- Lead by example. As our DC participants pointed out, “The top needs to walk the talk, in a really visible way, or the safety meter doesn’t move.” Establish personal connections and make yourself vulnerable so that the team feels more comfortable taking risks.
- Do more research. Participants mentioned several resources that they found helpful when thinking about psychological safety:
- Modern Agile Allegiance Talk (video section between from 32–38 minutes)
- Jerry Hirshberg’s Creative Abrasions
- Edgar Schein’s Humble Inquiry
Want more? See the full takeaways from February’s Team Ups. As always, shout-outs to Mohamed, Brandon, Zarko, Jose, Mariela, Sarah, and Natalya for helping to organize this event!
