I Don't Know

My daughter studies in the 3rd standard in an IB School. Last week we had been to her school for the subject fest. They have an interesting format of subject fest wherein kids are given prior assignments and they have to present it to the teacher during the subject fest in the presence of parents. After the presentation the teacher asked few questions to my daughter on the subject that was presented and while she answered most of them to one question, she didn’t know the answer and so very casually she said “I don’t Know”. This happened thrice with three different teachers after the presentation was made. It was great to see how the teachers were guiding and asking the right questions to my daughter till the time she could get the right answer.

While driving back home I was surprised and astonished with what I had witnessed. Out of curiosity I asked my daughter how open and comfortable she was in the presence of teachers to tell “I don’t know”. I wanted to know her mindset. What she said struck me. She said I love my teacher and I am not scared of her. I asked her if she was scared of her would she be able to answer “I don’t know” and to which her response was I will not like to study from such teachers.

If you were to notice the teacher had created enough safe space i.e. Psychological safety with their students wherein everyone was open to express their views freely and without any fear.

In any organisation where the leader operates out of tough love and compassion you see his team is more productive as they feel they are in a safe environment. Employees are more productive and creative when they are free from fear. When they feel safe, they open and grow. In 2015 Google published their results from a two-year study into what makes a great team. The first finding was Psychological Safety.

The interesting thing is that it wasn’t necessarily the teams that contained the most senior people, those with the highest IQs or even teams that made the least number of mistakes who ranked the highest. The study found that the teams which made more mistakes were actually more successful. Creating an environment in which people feel comfortable to take risks is the key to creating innovative workplaces.

Psychological safety is the belief that no one will be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.

A great, diverse team is one that is able to bounce ideas off each other, strengthen goals, help resolve issues and provide support to its members.

As leaders how do we create safe spaces and environments where I work? What can you demonstrate / practice to foster Psychological safety in your teams?