Psychological Safety - The Secret to Building Champion Teams

‘Bhaiyya, we’re got great talent on our debate team but we’re not performing,’ said Rinku. ‘How to build the perfect team?’

‘Google did a 2-year study called Project Aristotle on what makes the best teams tick,’ said Rakesh. ‘It could help.’

‘Wow,’ said Rahul. ‘What did they find?’

‘They found five characteristics common to high performing teams,’ said Rakesh. ‘They’re ‘impact’ – where team members feel their work has positive impact, ‘meaning’ - where team members feel their work is meaningful,  ‘structure and clarity’ - clarity in goals, roles and execution plan, and ‘dependability’ - where members believe they can depend on each other to deliver their part. But it’s the fifth that’s most important. The other four almost don’t matter if it’s missing.’

‘What’s that bhaiyya?’ asked Rinku.

‘Psychological safety,’ said Rakesh. ‘Do your team members feel safe enough to speak up, take moderate risks, without feeling insecure? Do they feel they can be vulnerable in front of peers, where mistakes aren’t punished and they can take action they feel right? When team members feel trusted and respected they act without fearing negative consequences, and work to potential. When team members feel unsafe, we miss out on initiative, creativity and end up with low performance because the team is not fully there. Clearly, it’s not who’s on the team, but how they interact that matters.’

‘We’ve the other four aspects in place bhaiyya,’ said Rahul. ‘How can we get Psychological Safety going?’

‘Among other things, two practices are important,’ said Rakesh. ‘The first is Conversational Turn-taking i.e. everyone talks equally. Make it a practice where everyone speaks equally. Secondly, practice Ostentatious Listening i.e. when others speak, listen fully. Ask questions, repeat what they said. Make them feel safe enough to express themselves without fear of judgment. In what they’re saying softly, lies a gem of an idea that can lead to a major breakthrough. Practice these to build a culture of Psychological Safety.’ ‘Bhaiyya, won’t this soft pedaling affect our performance?’ asked Rahul.

‘The idea is to have everyone at full potential,’ said Rakesh. ‘If mistakes are looked at as an opportunity to learn and not as a means to threaten, we build an environment that’s challenging, not threatening. Model risk taking by sharing a risk taken recently. Have others share and welcome ideas. Psychological safety is releasing the brakes, not taking the foot off the accelerator. When you have a foot on both, it’s severely hampers performance.’ ‘Thanks bhaiyya,’ said Rinku. ‘I’ll practice it in all my teams.’

Pro Tip: To make teams work to potential, build a culture of psychological safety where team members feel safe enough to speak out and take moderate risks without fear of being judged or punished. Build a space where everyone feels trusted and respected when they act and the team performs to potential.