Foster psychological safety

- Google conducted a major internal study to identify the key dynamics of successful teams. After two years, 200 interviews and the mapping of over 250 attributes, what do you think came out as the most important? Psychological safety, which simply means that members of a team feel that they can speak freely without being rejected, judged, or criticized. People often hold back from expressing concerns and opinions if there is a risk of being perceived negatively so they self censor and maintain an inauthentic image to fit in with the team. The good news is that you can encourage psychological safety within your team with these five practices. Admit errors, so demonstrate vulnerability and directness. Show others that it's okay if you make an error. This gives others permission to do the same. Reducing fear of judgment. Become curious about mistakes. What can we learn? What will we do differently going forward? This fosters a growth mindset culture that helps people feel more involved, accountable, and willing to grow. Throw a concern party. Take a page out of Google Venture's playbook by encouraging your team to take 10 minutes to individually write down their greatest anxieties about performance, about business uncertainty, anything. Then get them to spend two minutes ranking their anxieties in order of severity. And finally, each one shares their list, inviting opportunities for team support, empathy and solutions. Ask for help. We can't all be experts at everything and sometimes it makes sense to actively seek teammates for their help, skills or views. Asking for help creates permission for others to do the same. Fostering greater collaboration, which leads to better use of talent. Validate through expressions. We respond to people's expressions. Knowing this, when a teammate is speaking and they can see your expression, be present and demonstrate engagement. Validate, nod, smile, look like you're actively listening, it will make a huge difference to how comfortable you make them feel especially those who struggle with speaking up. We all have a role to play in creating psychological safety. It's not just the leader or the manager who creates the culture. In the exercise files, you'll find a checklist with suggestions for how to help foster greater psychological safety in your team. Building on psychological safety, next, we'll dive into practices to enhance your team's collaboration.