Creating a Safe Work Environment for Risk

You’re sitting in a meeting with co-workers or clients. A creative idea crosses your mind that is very different from how things are commonly done. This is something that would bend current thoughts and processes. If you’re like most Americans, you’ll keep that idea to yourself and – if you’re really lucky – you’ll forget you ever had it!

Why? Because time and again, our business cultures have not made it safe to express ideas that have unproven results. Have you ever tried…and quickly faced statements like:

• “That sounds like more work to kick off than just to keep doing what we’re doing now.”
• “Who’s going to be responsible if that doesn’t work?”
• “But then we’d have to train everyone in the new way to do things.”
• “That’s not how we do things here.”  (my personal favorite)

And so, brilliance is stifled – simply from fear of the reaction! Nay-sayers seem to take pride in telling us why our ideas probably won’t work. They fear, of course, that our ideas WILL be implemented and they may have to take the blame if any parts do fail. And what a shame this is! 

After all, after 100 years of our licking dry, unsanitary glue, someone final voiced the idea that self-adhesive postage stamps would be nicer, right?  We all had stickers as kids. Could it really be possible that no one thought that up before? Because I know that I thought of it at age 9. And when I asked my mother, she answered, corporately, "I'm sure there's a good reason." Yet we never lick stamps now. And this was at a government agency -- when the idea was raised, imagine how many people must have quickly thought, “We can’t just do that!” But eventually they did. Know anyone who misses the old dry tongue approach?

Organizations cease to create brilliance if the people within them cling to the safety zone. So, accepting this, how can we create an environment where everyone feels safe creating and even implementing ideas so we can grow and thrive? 

1) Compliment ideas – don’t shoot them down in front of others. If the idea really doesn’t appeal to you or is likely to take your meeting off target, ask the person to jot that down so it won’t be forgotten. Then do talk to the individual later, even if it’s briefly.

2) Praise an individual for his/her work - out of the context of other business. Make a special point of stopping by just for this – both when the recipient is alone and around peers. Not everyone is motivated by praise, but some crave it. And there's certainly no down side to praising those who don't long for it!

3) Encourage the reporting of struggles. When teammates are afraid to talk about the places they are stuck, they cannot be helped. What’s more, just taking the frustration out of feeling alone can release that mental block.

4) Discuss communication obstacles. Without blame, talk about what happened, why, and how we can encourage different behavior in the future. End on a positive note by thanking the participants for sharing the experience.

5) Among the risk-taking ideas, do as many of the little ones as possible. Show that you’re willing to take chances freely where the impact is low. 

When I was 22, I offered to start a “Bagel Club” at my office job. My plan was to allow people to tell me on Wednesday afternoons what flavor bagel they’d like me to bring for them on Thursday morning. The manager could have easily found a reason not to support the new kid in the office ? shooting it down by saying that it seemed unprofessional to be collecting money or distracting to the office ? but instead, he said “Sign me up for a Cinnamon-Raisin this week and we’ll see how it goes.”

From then on, Thursdays always started with about fifteen of us converging briefly for the bagels I'd pick up. Thursday mornings were always more upbeat after that, even though it was just a moment to say hello over the cream cheese.

6) When ideas fail, celebrate the spirit of attempt while acknowledging where the attempt did not succeed. Encourage discussion of alternative approaches rather than dumping the program. 

One flaw in the Bagel Club was the distraction of people dropping by all afternoon to tell me what flavor they wanted, which often led to chatting a bit. The manager noticed this and approached me. Rather than dismissing the club, he asked me if I could find a solution to that one problem. The next Tuesday, I posted a staff list by the coffee machine. That gave everyone two days to mark a bagel flavor next to their name and no one had to come by my desk at all.

7) Celebrate successes publicly.  This needn’t be a big bonus. One manager I knew used candy names at a staff meeting as acknowledgements. For instance, one time, he rewarded each members of successful project trio with a Three Musketeers. Another day, someone got a Nestle's $100,000 Bar for the "$100,000 he wished he could really give her for her clever implementation of a project.

8) Encourage cross-team praise, not just from above. This can be trickier to accomplish, but side comments like, “Thanks for praising Nancy on that job. It’s nice to see my staff supporting each other,” can set a tone.

Once the space is opened for brilliance, watch it come to life…and see if you don’t end up looking good, too!

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For those who hit upon this page directly:

Milo Shapiro of www.PublicDynamics.com has been coaching and running corporate classes in public speaking skills since 2004. He meets clients in person in San Diego, internationally via Skype, or as fly-in support. His books:

• "Public Speaking: Get A's, Not Zzzzzz's!"
• "Public Speaking for TEENS: Get A's, Not Zzzzzz's!"
• "The Worst Days Make The BEST Stories!"

can be found on the "Books" page of his site.

Milo is also a 20+ year performer of improvisation, tying these skills into fun teambuilding events that bring out communication and collaboration in teammates. He is a featured speaker at conferences on the topic of public speaking skills as well as having fun, interactive motivational keynotes that get the entire audience playing improvisation. More on these programs at www.MiloShapiro.com .

If you enjoyed this article, visit the Blog page at www.MiloShapiro.com to see past articles