Psychological Safety = High Performing Teams

Psychological safety is the foundation of high-performing teams because it invites vulnerability-based trust that is necessary to take risks, have healthy conflict, innovate, make good decisions and deliver collective results. With it teams thrive!

A recent Harvard Business Review article shares some research on how to engender psychological safety from a study on high-performing teams at Google:

1. Make friends with conflict as a collaborator, not an adversary. Ask yourself, what is trying to happen here vs. what is wrong.

2. Speak human to human. Meet each other as equals in your humanity regardless of title, class, gender, culture. Instead of thinking you are higher (better) or lower (worse) ask how is this person just like me?

3. Anticipate different perspectives. Focus on content not identity.

4. Replace judgment with curiosity. Go for understanding vs. being right.

5. Invite and give feedback. Illuminate blindspots productively. Capture lessons learned. Correct vs. punish.

6. Create team agreements on how you will handle conflict and mistakes.

Click here for the entire article "High Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety" by Laura Delizonna

Feed Forward instead of Back

Providing helpful feedback is a challenge for many leaders and teams. Why? We:

1. Limit it to a once a year annual review
2. Believe we will hurt someone's feelings 
3. Focus on the past vs. the future
4. Judge (what is wrong) instead of share an observation (what is)
5. Don't have feedback protocols or permissions in our team agreements
6. Discuss behavior only and miss impact
7. Muddle the communication for fear of reaction
8. Forget that we need others to help us see our blindspots 
9. Don't align feedback with desired results
10. Give one-way feedback instead of dialogue 
11. Wait too long to provide it

Feedback is a key practice on high-performing teams and not just from leader to team member. To address #3, shift your approach from feed "back" to feed "forward".  Instead of pointing out "what is wrong" (that often has a pinch of punishment energy to it) explore "what might be".  Instead of looking back at what can't be changed, look forward to what is possible.  

Try it for yourself with a direct report or colleague:

• Ask, "What is a behavior you would like to change or grow in? Why? And what difference would it make to goal achievement?"
• Brainstorm ideas and discuss solutions together 
• Invite him/her to select 2 ideas that most resonate to practice
• Discuss ways you can support

You may experience this as a generative, energizing experience and actually enjoy it. For more on FeedForward check out Marshall Goldsmith's research. Thanks to Liz for the discovery! 

What are you listening for?

Have you ever considered the purpose of your communication?

When you ask questions, is it to tell people what they want to hear, to debate or show how smart you are, to reflect back what you are hearing or to illuminate our knowingness?

And what are you listening for? Is it to be liked, to identify facts and differences, to understand the experience of another or to allow a deeper wisdom to reveal itself?

Notice the difference in your relationships and results when you download, debate, dialogue or delve deep. For more check out Otto Schwarmer's work at MIT.

Polarity Management

Competitive advantage requires polarity management. As leaders, we are constantly faced with figuring out ways to reconcile seemingly opposing forces. How do we get the #'s and care about people, think globally and act locally, lead and manage, achieve quality and reduce cost, be environmentally responsible and make money? As we are able to see polarities as "both/and" instead of "either/or" new strategies will arise.

According to Barry Johnson, "Polarities have 2 or more right answers that are interdependent." He also states, "because virtually all of our 'problems' in formal education have one right answer, we automatically shift into that way of thinking when a 'problem' occurs at work." When addressing a polarity this actually makes the issue worse because it can't be solved so it becomes a no-win proposition.

Polarity Management invites us to "capitalize on the inherent tension between seemingly opposing forces." We need both activity and rest, individuals and teams, introversion and extroversion, productivity and engagement, centralization and decentralization, masculine and feminine, safety and speed, inhalation and exhalation, stability and change, right brain and left brain to thrive. To focus on one polarity at the expense of another actually swings an invisible pendulum back and forth, back and forth, back and forth and so depletes energy, time and money.

To experiment with this concept go for a "figure eight" that is considers both sides:

1. Name an issue you are wrestling with. 
2. Why is it important to balance this polarity and what is the worry if you don't?
3. Identify the up and down side of each polarity.
4. List 2-3 actions to leverage the plus side of both and red flags to raise awareness when you are dipping into the negative of each.

Barriers to High Performance on Teams

While it's important to understand and apply the factors of team success it's just as important to anticipate and illuminate obstacles. The very diversity that engenders innovation, problem solving and synergy can interfere in optimal team work if it's not valued or respected.

Patrick Lencioni in his book "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" identifies absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability and inattention to results as the things that impede team performance.

Here are a few other ideas to explore if you are struggling to flow through interpersonal challenges that are a natural part of team work. How are you:

• Giving voice to varying perceptions, assumptions and mindsets without making anyone wrong? 
• Recognizing and minimizing team toxins (blame, defensiveness, stonewalling and contempt)?
• Understanding and honoring different work, leadership and communication styles?
• Distinguishing between barriers (which can be overcome) and limitations (which are constraints that can't)?
• Establishing meaningful and relevant direction?
• Aligning individual and team needs?
• Leveraging talents and fueling passions?

High performing teams expect obstacles because they inform and can change the course of any valuable endeavor for the better!