Creating brave spaces at work

About twenty years ago a Harvard professor called Amy Edmundson did some fascinating research into team effectiveness.  She wanted to answer the question, what makes some teams more effective than others.  Edmundson expected to find that higher performing teams made fewer mistakes but instead found that the best teams reported a higher number of mistakes when compared to less effective teams.  The conclusion she drew from this research is that higher performing teams felt much more able to speak about and report their errors.  Essentially these teams had what psychologists call psychological safety “a belief that nobody will be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking”.   Within a work setting when everyone feels able to speak up and contribute this leads to fewer mistakes and better performance regardless of what kind of organisation you work in. 

Some people have described psychological safety as a ‘learning environment’ rather than a ‘knowing environment.’   This type of environment privileges what Carol Dweck calls a growth mindset – a belief that your skills and abilities are not set in stone and a belief that mistakes are not only inevitable but vital if the company wants to innovate and grow.    

There are lots of high-profile examples of companies which failed to prioritise psychological safety to their own detriment.  One such example is Fargo Wells in the States who failed to create permission for their staff on the ground to report mistakes or failures which left the leadership team completely disconnected from what was happening on the ground and ultimately lead to the demise of the whole company. 

Psychological safety is important for so many reasons

 

·       We know from Brene Brown’s research that vulnerability is the cornerstone of so much – innovation, creativity, connection - vulnerability is always hard but it is even harder when we do not feel psychologically safe with the people we work with.  The consequences? We stay quiet.  We do not offer our ideas or perhaps more importantly raise our concerns 

 

·       When we inhabit a culture of learning, a growth mindset culture - there is so much more permission to bring ideas and feel secure in the knowledge that our team practices curiosity and active listening.  This does not mean our ideas will be adopted but it does mean you will be heard with respect and curiosity

 

·       Mattering matters in work organisations.  Mattering is defined as both feeling valued and feeling like you are adding value.    To add value, we must feel safe enough to contribute

 

·       Stress and burnout are prolific in today’s corporate environments.  Working in a psychologically safe environment is associated with lower burnout and greater adaptability.   When we feel safe at work, we are more likely to let people know we are struggling and ask for support

 

·       Companies who prioritise psychological safety have more engagement, more innovation and less turnover of staff

These ideas are further corroborated by an extensive research study carried out by Google in 2012, Project Aristotle.  They spent a number of years and an enormous amount of time and energy studying over 180 teams to try and answer the question What makes teams effective.  They eventually identified psychological safety as the most fundamental component in any high-performing team.

So how do we go about increasing psychological safety in the workplace.  Adam Grant, Professor at Wharton School of Business, has several suggestions:

1.      Leaders being open to problems not just solutions.  When leaders can create a culture where problems are openly discussed this goes a long way in terms of psychological safety.  Grant suggests creating a problem box as opposed to a suggestion box and protecting time to focus specifically on what is not working well.

2.      Leading by example.  While leaders are not the only ones responsible for creating psychological safety in the workplace, they hold the most influential position in terms of the emotional climate.  When leaders can share their own mistakes and shortcoming on a regular basis, this creates permission and safety for other people in the team to do the same.  What is important to recognise here is the dynamic nature of psychological safety, it is not a one-off event but rather the long-term adoption of persistent habits that support long term psychological safety. 

3.      Adopting a growth mindset culture.  When companies recognise failure as an opportunity for growth psychological safety flourishes.  Risk taking is a universal precursor for growth, without risk there is no growth. 

4.      Making sure everyone voice is heard. Psychologically safety is not created in a day, it is an accumulation of small changes that over time create a much braver work environment.  One of these small changes is ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to contribute.  Grant has identified one simple way to create a positive practice around this.   He suggests replacing brainstorming with brainwriting.  This means collecting individual ideas first with writing and then discussing them together in a group. 

Psychological safety is ultimately about team members feeling valued and supported in their work.  When people feel safe in their work environments, they can be brave.  This bravery brings experimentation, a willingness to be vulnerable and permission to speak with candour.  This creates innovation and growth and perhaps even more importantly ensures that when things are not working well there is an established practice that allows this to be easily raised.