How can you create a psychologically safe team for innovation?
Innovation is the key to success in today's dynamic and competitive world. But how can you foster a culture of innovation in your team, where everyone feels comfortable to share their ideas, experiment, learn, and collaborate? One of the essential factors is creating a psychologically safe team, where people trust each other, respect diversity, and embrace feedback. In this article, you will learn what psychological safety is, why it matters for innovation, and how you can use facilitation skills to build and maintain it in your team.
Psychological safety is the belief that you can speak up, take risks, and be yourself without fear of negative consequences, such as ridicule, rejection, or punishment. It is not about being nice or avoiding conflict, but about being open and honest, while respecting and supporting others. Psychological safety enables people to express their opinions, ask questions, admit mistakes, and learn from each other, which are all crucial for innovation.
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When psychological safety is there, it might be sensed as a little bit of 'chaos'. Because the diverse opinions, needs and views that were previously not voiced, are now present in the room. As the facilitator, it's equally important to be able to tap into the feeling of safety within ourselves and to trust the group by sharing our thoughts, concerns, and ideas transparently.
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Couple of examples illustrating how psychological safety is the difference between high and low performing teams from Amy Edmondson's notion of teaming and Project Aristotle from Google. There's also Safety 1 and Safety 2 which further helps to understand the different behaviours between high performing and low performing teams. The existence of psychological safety is certainly a key factor in creating a safe space for teams to trust each other and innovate.
Innovation requires creativity, curiosity, and collaboration. These qualities depend on the ability and willingness of people to share their diverse perspectives, experiment with new solutions, and learn from their failures. However, if people feel unsafe in their team, they may withhold their ideas, conform to the status quo, or avoid taking risks, which can stifle innovation. On the other hand, if people feel safe in their team, they may generate more ideas, challenge assumptions, or seek feedback, which can enhance innovation. Research has shown that psychological safety is one of the key drivers of team performance, learning, and innovation.
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Psychological safety is the foundation on which innovative culture can be built. Anything else an organisation does to enhance innovation will not take root if the people do not feel safe in themselves and with each other. If we look honestly into various trainings, workshops, programs that companies have invested in their people, real change afterwards only happens when the people feel empowered and daring to take risks. And that takes courage, which is grown and nurtured in a safe environment. At the core of psychological safety is humans relating to one another in good faith, equality and with respect. Leaders and managers in the team or the organisation play an important role in setting the tone.
Before you can improve psychological safety in your team, you need to understand the current level of it. One way to do this is to use a survey or a questionnaire that measures how people perceive the team climate, such as the Psychological Safety Scale or the Team Psychological Safety Survey. You can also use other methods, such as interviews, observations, or feedback sessions, to gather qualitative data on how people feel and behave in the team. The goal is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the team culture, and the areas that need improvement.
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One framework I've found helpful is the Four Stages of Psychological Safety by Timothy Clark. 1) It starts with Inclusion Safety, where everyone knows they are valued and treated fairly regardless of their position, level of seniority, gender, etc, 2) Learner Safety, where everyone feels invited to discover, ask questions, experiment, and learn from mistakes, 3) Collaborator Safety, where everyone engages in contributing ideas and fosters a constructive feedback environment, 4) and finally Challenger Safety, where everyone feels safe to speak up, express ideas and expose problems. At which level do you feel your team/organisation is? It would be interesting to also ask your team members for their individual assessment towards the team.
As a facilitator, you can play a vital role in creating and sustaining a psychologically safe team. To do this, you should establish clear and shared goals and norms for the team and ensure that everyone understands and agrees on them. This can help to create a sense of purpose, alignment, and accountability within the team. Additionally, you should encourage positive and constructive communication and feedback, while avoiding blaming, criticizing, or interrupting others. This will help to create a respectful and supportive environment where people can express themselves freely. Furthermore, it is important to invite and value diverse and dissenting opinions in the team in order to avoid groupthink or bias. Doing so will create a rich pool of ideas that can stimulate creativity and innovation. Finally, you should foster a growth mindset and learning orientation in the team. Celebrating failures, mistakes, and experiments as opportunities for improvement will help to create a culture of curiosity and exploration where people feel comfortable taking risks.
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Curiosity is harder to master than we think, especially when we become more of an expert. But asking questions with genuine interest to understand, versus 'fishing' for the answers I want to hear, has been my ongoing practice. It takes skill development in active listening, being fully present, and actively inviting different views to continue growing as a facilitator. The facilitator leads by example, by developing their unwavering sense of safety and demonstrating the behaviours they want to see in their team members. That's the only I know that works. If anyone has another approach, I'm keen to hear.
Creating a psychologically safe team is an ongoing process that requires constant attention and adaptation. As a facilitator, you can monitor and maintain psychological safety by regularly checking in with team members to ask how they feel, what they need, and what they suggest to improve the team culture and performance. You may also want to review and revise team goals and norms periodically, while ensuring everyone agrees with them. Additionally, it's important to recognize and reward the team members for their contributions, achievements, and learnings, providing them with recognition, appreciation, and support. Tools such as surveys, polls, retrospectives, debriefs, action plans, awards, badges, or shout-outs can be used to collect and analyze data on the team climate and satisfaction or celebrate and motivate the team members.
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A good sign for the facilitator is that when they feel that their facilitating work becomes lighter or easier. This happens when the team members are engaging and feeling a sense of ownership of the process. Everyone seems their value in holding the group integrity together. Of course, this doesn't happen automatically. All the checking-in needs to be modelled and established as the team culture. One question a facilitator could ask that could be a litmus test is, "How are we being as a team?" (instead of the regular how are we doing).
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