Psychological Safety Powers Innovation
Leaders! The most important work benefit isn't what you think it is. It's psychological safety. Here's what it is, why it matters, and one small step to create it in your culture.
What does it mean to create a culture of psychological safety?
In our work we’ve found that when leaders lead with vulnerability and humility the team is much more open, honest and better able to collaborate. When we first heard about the concept of psychological safety, we were all in, but it doesn’t just happen.
It takes a whole lot of what WorkLife calls, “rehearsal” to get the concept embedded in the organizational drinking water.
It’s important to take the time to build a culture of openness and sharing in order for collaboration to happen. One of the first things to do is to create safe spaces in the culture. One of our favorite ways to do this is by creating a team talking stick.
This concept was first used in many Indigenous cultures. It’s an ancient and powerful “communication tool” that ensures a code of conduct of respect during meetings. The person holding the stick, and only that person, is designated as having the right to speak and all others must listen quietly and respectfully.
Easier said than done but once embraced, people feel heard, more ideas are shared, and trust follows. We often see leaders skipping this very important step, jumping to getting things done and focusing myopically on results. Well, in our work, we’ve seen that by building a culture of psychological safety, everyone is a whole lot happier.
Team members who may feel intimidated by someone who seemingly takes charge, are able to share and contribute without feeling punished or humiliated. This is the essence of psychological safety.
Which leads to innovation. How can individuals and teams innovate if there isn’t the baseline of psychological safety first? They may think they’re innovative, but chances are they’re more guarded and are feeling held back from being honest and therefore may be unable to share new ideas and concepts.
Will they be ridiculed and shut down or is there a healthy culture of debate and having challenging “go there” conversations so that creativity and curiosity can co-exist?
If this year is shaping up to be the year of the “great resignation” how do leaders create cultures where individuals feel that there’s a purpose to their work and that they feel valued.
Without it, they now have the confidence to choose where they want to be and how they want to work. If the COVID-19 crisis has taught organizations anything, it’s that they need to promote cultures of individual employees embracing their development along with an “if it’s to be, it’s up to me” mindset for their careers.
21st century leaders must promote the innovation that is critical for organizational health and competitiveness in a world of change. The leader gets the chance to set the stage for what's acceptable within the organization, especially within teams.
Take a step to setting you and the team up for success by embracing psychological safety and create your very own Talking Stick!
Here are a few VERY technical steps to the Talking Stick exercise:
Actual hand-drawn ancient graphic from - Eastern Band Cherokee Native American Research and Training Center Tucson, Arizona
Get a stick. This can be something from outside like a branch or a piece of wood;
Set the creativity stage right from the start. Plan a “creating the talking stick” event and allow for creativity to flourish by having everyone contribute;
Make it unique to the team – use a wood burner tool, get markers, feathers and any other creative materials;
Display it proudly;
Use it as a check in and check out tool or during times when conflict is brewing
Have fun! (The HARDEST but most important part!)
Need help with getting started. Schedule a discovery session.