'Psychological Safety':

 

'Psychological Safety':

[caption id="attachment_6475" align="alignleft" width="300"] Psychological Safety[/caption]

'Psychological Safety' is a term that has started to come to mind frequently.

In fact, even in the Google Trends interest graph, the global interest in psychological safety has been on the rise since 2018.

Until then, it was treated as a simple psychological term, but now it is regarded as an important value not only by global companies such as Google, but also by various domestic companies.

Let’s take a look at three ways to keep a sense of psychological safety and a checklist that Google offers to leaders.

It was Amy Edmondson, a tenured professor at Harvard Business School, who introduced the concept of psychological safety to the world.

Amy Edmonson has been emphasizing the importance of psychological safety in leadership since the 1990s.
She said her TED videos, where she spoke, are so popular that they have garnered millions of views.

"It's the belief that she won't be personally judged or criticized no matter what she says," she said.

This is how she defines psychological safety. People can inspire new attempts and innovations when they have the belief that they will not be blamed for their mistakes or failures.

With a sense of psychological safety, you won't waste time and energy trying to defend yourself. Google was the first company to recognize the importance of this psychological safety.

The 'Aristotle Project':

Google carried out a large-scale project called 'Aristotle Project' for 4 years from 2012.
Based on Aristotle's philosophy, who said that 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts', it analyzed the characteristics of the team with the best performance.

Aren't you curious?
What are the characteristics of a team that excels at Google, one of the world's top IT companies?
Analysis of over 180 teams found common success factors

For high-performing teams, how team members interact with each other, rather than who they are, was a key factor in determining the team's chances of success.
It was a simple yet powerful fact that each team member positively influences each other and results are produced when the organizational culture is healthy.

And taking these results together, Google is the most important
Five things are announced.
Psychological Safety,
Dependability,
Structure & Clarity,
Meaning,
Impact.

Among them, psychological safety was evaluated as the most important value.
Now, what are the three ways to keep a sense of psychological safety?

Team leader's psychological safety:

One of the most common examples of a first-hand feeling of psychological safety in the workplace is the relationship between the team leader and the team members.

Team members feel a sense of psychological safety from the team leader they meet face to face every day, and sometimes vice versa.
Professor Edmonson, introduced earlier, called an organization with a sense of psychological safety a 'fearless organization'.

In other words, employees are not afraid to express their opinions about their work.
This is possible when you are confident that no matter what you say, you will not be punished or harmed.
When you have this confidence, opinions begin to emerge within the team and help the team overcome many of the difficult situations it faces.

If so, what specific actions can the team leader take to give the team members a sense of psychological safety?

In small teams of 5 or less, it is effective for the team leader to have one-on-one meetings with the team members, even on an irregular basis.
In this case, it is better for the team leader to listen to questions that are difficult to ask when he is with other team members and to answer them based on his or her own experience, rather than talking to the team members a lot.

Responsibilities of a Team Leader:

[caption id="attachment_6486" align="alignright" width="300"] Team leader responsibilities[/caption]

Team Member: My role changes frequently. I am honestly confused as to whether this is a natural phenomenon as it is a startup or if it is just me.
Team Leader: I've been the team leader for a little over a month, and I've already changed roles twice. Remember?
Not only me, but also in the development team, where it seems unlikely that roles will change, departments and roles have been changed recently.

Not all startups are like that, but since this is where the industry our company belongs to was first born, I want you to think of it as a process in which big changes occur every day and the organization changes accordingly.

And now, no matter what kind of experience you have, it will be a great asset to your career, so instead of worrying, if you work with anticipation, you will feel at ease.

Another thing the team leader can do for his teammates is to 'show predictability'.
In other words, it reduces uncertainty.
Team members should be able to think, 'In such and such situations, most of our team leaders will take this kind of action'.

When there are many exceptions, uncertainty increases for team members, making it difficult for them to focus on their work.

Show predictability, to reduce uncertainty:

Michael Deputy Manager: Manager James, it seems to be the direction to expand the linked products in relation to this partnership agreement. If you don't know, maybe you should discuss it with your team leader?

Manager James: Assistant Michael, that part is fine. The team leader usually avoids discounting prices and emphasizes linked products that can be a win-win for both partners and our company in the long run. In the above conversation, Manager Kim can say that there is a sense of psychological safety.

Because he believes that the team leader's decision-making is consistent, there is no possibility that the team leader's decision-making will become an abrupt variable in carrying out his work.
In this case, Manager Kim has no anxiety factors, so it is easier for him to focus on his work and get good results.

[caption id="attachment_6536" align="alignright" width="300"] Team Leader's decision making[/caption]

Sometimes it helps to be clear about who you are responsible for.

However, it is very meaningful to the team members when the team leader directly communicates to the team members that they will take responsibility.
It sounds like a team leader saying, "I'll take responsibility, so let's have fun working somewhere."
It often happens that team members produce great results even when the team leader doesn't give specific guidance.

Employee's psychological safety that the organization protects

While there is a sense of psychological safety provided by the direct manager or executive, there is also a sense of psychological safety that is maintained at the organizational level.
Most of these cases go through the CEO or through institutions and processes.
A number of factors must work together to change company culture.
But among them, nothing is more important than the CEO's words and actions.
In particular, one message from the CEO from the top down has a big impact on psychological safety.

"The core of organizational culture is a sense of psychological safety, but 'freedom to fail' is important"
"Mutual trust and respect arise only when you feel psychologically safe"
These are the words the new semiconductor (DS) president of Samsung Electronics asked employees to do after taking office in December last year.

This change can be seen as the result of the recent increase in employee dissatisfaction due to the lack of psychological safety in IT companies.
With the CEO's declaration of will, many companies improve their processes at the organizational level.

A sense of psychological safety between team members:

Psychological safety can be an issue even among team members who work closer than anyone else.
Some of the team members may feel left out, and they may feel discouraged by the difference in performance.

As with the results of Google's Aristotle project, a team's performance depends not on the individual capabilities of the team members, but on how the team members interact with each other.
Therefore, the team members themselves must protect the psychological safety of other team members.

One of the surest ways is to increase transparency. The first step to increasing transparency is to make the information available and available to everyone on the team, rather than making it available to just a few people among team members.

Psychological safety Checklist:

Finally, here is a checklist to check the psychological safety used by Google.

(1) Leaders must not interrupt team members during conversations. Because such behaviors create 'disturbing norms'.
(2) Leaders must demonstrate that they are listening by summarizing after hearing what the team members have to say.
(3) Leaders must admit to their team members what they do not know.
(4) Leaders must not end a meeting until all members of the team have spoken at least once.
(5) Leaders should encourage angry team members to express their frustrations. At the same time, you need to help your teammates react in a non-judgmental way.

Confliction between team members:

Leaders should bring conflicts between team members to the surface and resolve them through open discussion. If you look at the checklist, it looks easy, but if you think deeply, you can feel that none of them are easy.
'Leaders must admit what they do not know' For example, the above items can be a significant burden for someone.
However, many studies show that when leaders admit what they do not know, expose their mistakes, and show their faults, they increase the psychological safety of team members.
Through the checklist, you will be able to check the current state of psychological safety in the organization you belong to. If you are a leader, how about making a resolution to keep at least one thing out of the checklist this year for the psychological safety of your team members?
In fact, if only a few of the above six are followed, team members will definitely feel more psychologically secure and will be able to focus more deeply on their work.