The One Best Way to Improve Team Performance - Improve Psychological Safety
Posted on September 14, 2020 by Matt Tracy, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
A team that learns instead of blames, questions assumptions freely, and values each member will perform better. Here's how to be that team.
A couple of years ago, a plane crashed short of the runway at SFO because the copilots were afraid to point out to the pilot that the landing angle was too shallow. They were afraid to point it out even though their lives were on the line. If the accepted norm in that cockpit had been one of questioning assumptions and correcting them without shame in being wrong, that crash wouldn’t have happened.
A recent study of successful teams found that Psychological Safety was the most important predictor of the success of the team – Can they question assumptions and decisions without feeling insecure or embarrassed? Are their contributions valued? Can they take chances and make mistakes? When the whole group gets involved, people work together more, make mistakes and learn from them, look out for each other, and grow as individuals and as a group.
Are people walking out of your meetings thinking, “That’s a bad idea. I would go in a different direction.” Why didn’t they speak up? Was it because they had been shot down in meetings previously? Or maybe it was because everyone else was acting like they understood the whole plan and was on board. Maybe only a few people ever talk in meetings and the rest don’t speak up.
If we’re not able to look stupid sometimes, we won’t question unwise business moves. If we’re chastised for being wrong, we won’t take chances. If one person or small group of people is making all the decisions, the rest of the team is just there to carry out orders without thinking. It’s a waste of the creative energy and thinking power of the whole group.
Psychological Safety – making mistakes and learning from them, feeling free to question assumptions, being able to give and receive honest feedback, valuing the contributions of each team member and giving each person a voice allows a team to be much more than just the sum of its parts.
How can you as a leader foster an atmosphere of Psychological Safety within your team?
-The next time you make a mistake, tell your team about it, and talk about what you learned from it.
-When someone makes a mistake, make sure the first question is “What can we learn from this?” not “Who is responsible?”
-Before the next meeting, let the quiet person on the team know that you will be wanting their input on a specific topic in the meeting.
-Tell your team about your goal of Psychological Safety and ask for their help in getting there. Ask them to tell you how you’re getting in the way of your own goal, then listen to what they have to say.
Matt Tracy is an Executive Coach.
He believes that small actions consistently applied lead to large results over time.
