How does psychological safety affect innovation and creativity in teams?

Years ago, Google launched a study to answer the question: "What makes a team effective at Google?" After researching and crunching the numbers, they found that the most successful teams had high psychological safety and that no one on the team felt like they would be punished or embarrassed for asking a question or offering a new idea.

As a leader, one of the tactics I use to create psychological safety on my teams is to be vulnerable and acknowledge the mistakes I've made or something I'm struggling with. Consequently, it gives team members a signal that it's okay to be vulnerable and open as well.

There are many ways how we can grow psychological safety in the team. Some of them are: 1. Creating an atmosphere of feedback 2. Giving the team the opportunity to spend time together 3. Making decisions together 4. Listening but active listening 5. Giving people the responsibility 6. When failing - looking for solution, not people to blame

It is important to create psychological safety in simple ways. When I facilitate meetings for our remote team, I do visual check-ins. I show an image and ask people to rate how they are feeling. Folks are encouraged t to share in the chat if they are comfortable or out loud if they want to explain more. It establishes that how you feel is not separate from work, but an important part of the work. And it gives people a chance to share in an easy (and often joyful) way that doesn't feel forced. So much of psychological safety is creating constant intentional moments for people to be aware of themselves and what they need, so that they can then clearly advocate for what they need in a work environment.

Consider asking those you work with "what do you know about me and my behavior that I don't know about myself"? This opens up an ability to be vulnerable while acknowledging blind spots.

Psychological safety is not a destination, but rather a journey that requires continuous attention and nurturing. It's like a plant that needs regular watering, sunlight, and care to thrive. The sudden shift to remote work has led to a loss of social support and face-to-face communication, while the focus on diversity has brought to the surface issues of bias and discrimination. Additionally, the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic has added stress and anxiety to the work environment. To maintain a culture of psychological safety, we must be intentional about monitoring, reflecting, adapting, and involving our team members in the process. Let’s start by asking the real question, Are YOU OKAY?

Without leaders who know how to support their employees through: stress burnout exhaustion grief loss trauma conflict loneliness isolation depression the list goes on and on There can be no psychological safety. This begins with leadership who knows how to care for their team so their team knows how to #SpeakUp without fear.

Go slow to go fast. If psychological safety is low, take time to understand what happened. So often, we want to go right to a solution, but you have to listen to understand (not to fix). Once you truly understand a problem, then you can co-create solutions with teams that will increase psychological safety. I can't stress this enough--make sure you are co-creating norms and practices to increase psychological safety. It isn't enough to simply apologize and then try to create a solution on your own for your team. Create feedback loops and make sure you are getting it right and seeing progress over time.

This is the rising problem all over the world because of incapable, narcissistic or selfish individual, politician, so called leader, owner or employee. The problem is the result of the technological age and social media. The EQ is overtaken by IQ emphasis. There should be balance.