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Psychologically safe workspaces is the new normal

In a fearless organisation, people express question and innovate freely: Amy Edmondson

Original article from Economics Times By Srijana Mitra Das, ET Bureau | Last Updated: Aug 19, 2022, 08:24 AM IST

Synopsis
Importantly, companies should be very open about the challenges they face. Team leaders and CEOs should explicitly acknowledge that they are facing something new which involves everybody’s best thinking — this creates the rationale for people to speak up.

Amy Edmondson teaches leadership and management at Harvard Business School. Speaking to ET, she discusses how to build a
‘fearless organisation’:

What is the core of your research?
I study what it takes to create a learning organisation in a rapidly changing world — I research the kind of culture that is needed for people to be able to speak up with their work-relevant ideas. I call this ‘psychological safety’ which means an environment where people believe that their voice is welcome.

How do you define what you term the 'fearless organisation'

This is a place where people have a high level of psychological safety, where they can speak with candour, share ideas, concerns and questions, experiment and take risks. These actions can often seem risky at an interpersonal level. So, people hold back, read the room and try to gauge if their voice will be welcome at all — this wastes valuable time and leads to a lack of sharing, which impacts innovation and can even cause business failures. A fearful organisation could be effective if the work is routine — but if you need innovation and problem-solving, you need to create a sense of freedom for people to express themselves.

What are the main steps towards creating such an environment?

Importantly, companies should be very open about the challenges they face. Team leaders and CEOs should explicitly acknowledge that they are facing something new which involves everybody’s best thinking — this creates the rationale for people to speak up. It is also important to develop a ‘productive response’ — this means listening to views, processing them and being supportive. It doesn’t mean agreeing with everything that is said — it means being appreciative in a human way of other people’s inputs.

Could a fearless organisation also challenge company discipline?

Psychological safety is not at odds with discipline. This isn’t about unleashing chaos — it is about creating the conditions and processes where people can be comfortable learning, improving and inventing. The only thing you are taking off the table here is interpersonal fear — if people are afraid of what their bosses or colleagues will think of them, they won’t contribute their knowledge. They won’t speak up even if they see something that could damage the company. This is very costly in the knowledge era.

Are there measurable drawbacks in productivity caused by a ‘yes-man’ culture?

Certainly — data shows us that teams with high p sycholog ic a l safety, where people can speak up, are more productive and perform better than those without this. Also, many business failures are preventable events which occurred because people were too afraid to express their views. Consider the Wells Fargo banking scandal where people feared pointing out flaws in targets and methods. A top-down,command-and-control approach leads to people going along with actions that can damage a brand.

What is 'extreme teaming'?

Modern teamwork is dynamic — instead of teams which stay together for a long time, we now see people assigned rapidly to different teams, working on complex projects needing diverse expertise. ‘Extreme teaming’ describes teamwork not just within one organisation but across organisations, where different people need to work together but are not beholden to the same bosses or ideals. Yet, they must collaborate successfully. A good example of extreme teaming is the Lake Nona Medical City project in Florida. A new city had to be built from scratch with a focus on healthcare and energy efficiency. It took about a decade and involved crossboundary collaboration between government, property developers, healthcare groups, sustainable energy experts, etc.

Why do you write that today’s business leaders should express vulnerability and not bravado?

Vulnerability is a fact — every leader faces events outside their control. Bravado is a state where you are unwilling to acknowledge this. Yet, everybody knows there are challenges involved. If leaders are not honest about this, people don’t trust them and become less likely to contribute in full to an enterprise. Being genuine and straightforward can be very inspiring. Leaders should acknowledge the novelty of a situation and say, ‘I believe we have what it takes to navigate this.’ That is an incredibly exciting invitation for people to do their best work. Examples of such leadership include Edwin Catmull, CEO and cofounder of Pixar, and Eileen Fisher who founded the eponymous clothing brand. Alongside their success, they also communicate an inspiring modesty, honesty and humour.

What is the most important lesson climate change holds now?

Climate change is a profound challenge for all — only businesses that take this seriously will be in a position to innovate, thrive and make a positive difference to a new world. As businesses, teams and people, we’re often trained to care more about the present over the future though — we must overcome this mindset now if we don’t want it to be our undoing.

What is Psychological Safety at the workplace?

Effects of a Psychologically Safer Workplace

Innovation
‍ Google and Dr Amy Edmonson conducted separate studies which demonstrated that teams which made more mistakes were more productive and successful than others. When people feel more comfortable to take risks, this fosters an environment of innovation at the workplace. A key trait of a high-functioning team is the ability to brainstorm, strengthen plans of action and troubleshoot concerns where employees have a supportive relationship with each other.
‍
Emotionally Strong Workplace
‍ When we get to know our employees on a human level, we build employee trust through positive interactions and conversations. This psychological safety results in happier teams and increased employee engagement where employees are more willing to share unspoken reservations. When we are able to destigmatize failure as an inevitable bump along the road to success, employees are more courageous to take risks.

‍Talent Retention
‍ With supportive relationships at work, employees feel more confident about raising genuine concerns and are more equipped to prevent or handle failure. When employees are fully committed, organizations have an opportunity to leverage the strength of all their talent. Churn rates are lowered with talent retention, and we notice decreased costs related to recruitment and absenteeism. Organizations are also four times more likely to retain top performers, two times more likely to hit revenue goals as the employees are two times more likely to achieve their first-year performance goals in a psychologically safe environment.

‍Productivity
` Teams move into a learning zone, when accountability for performance interacts with psychological safety. When a safe environment is ready, members facilitate learning from failures, and members' feedback-seeking behavior and adaptability could be strengthened (Gong and Li, 2019). This results in healthier, more inclusive and more productive teams where there are higher levels of engagement, more learning and development opportunities. When employees feel cared for and are happy, they have more intrinsic motivation to work hard and are more innovative too.

How can 1to1help make your workplace Psychologically Safe?

1to1help's MINDSPRING is a series of talks and conversations on subjects including Psychological Safety, Emotional Intelligence, Talent Retention and Emotional Strength as catalysts for employee productivity. The sessions will be hosted and conducted by carefully chosen eminent personalities, subject matter experts and key opinion leaders - much like yourself, who can help shape the mindsets of future organisational leadership.

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In a fearless organisation, people express question and innovate freely: Amy Edmondson

How do you define what you term the 'fearless organisation'

What are the main steps towards creating such an environment?

Could a fearless organisation also challenge company discipline?

Are there measurable drawbacks in productivity caused by a ‘yes-man’ culture?

What is 'extreme teaming'?

Why do you write that today’s business leaders should express vulnerability and not bravado?

What is the most important lesson climate change holds now?

Videos

Attrition is Directly Linked to Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Promoting Psychological Safety at the Workplace Leads to Increased Productivity

A Culture of Creativity Fosters Innovation ‍

Why Psychologically Safe Workplaces Are Needed to Combat Depression & Burnout‍

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