The Main Ingredient in High Performing Teams

The best training I’ve ever taken was in my early PepsiCo days, in Modesto, California. Gathered together in the training room of the Frito Lay plant were many of my peers, management from across the West division. We were being led in a training about Unconscious Bias and the exercise our moderator led us in was powerful. We began by standing in a straight line on one end of the room. Each time a statement read aloud was true for us, we were to step forward. It was stunning to see how incredibly staggered we were at the finish of the exercise, but the best part of the training was the discussion that followed.

“I had never considered..” or “I didn’t realize…” were common phrases as we shared our reflections with one another and how these biases had affected the ways in which we work. Most importantly, there was no condescending, shaming, or assignment of blame in the training. You see, to be biased is to be human, but the word itself can be triggering for many. Our brain is wired for bias - it’s how we make sense of the world and simplify fast-decision making. It’s how we sort through a crowd and determine whether a threat exists. Biases are informed by our environment, communities, and experiences. Bias is why I see the colors red and yellow and think “Kansas City football”, whereas others think “McDonalds”

But here’s the great news: because biases are most often unconscious, we can work to acknowledge and adjust those biases in how we show up at work and in community. The first step is to recognize and understand those biases, usually through implicit tests (like this free resource from Harvard University). From there, we use emotional self-awareness and intelligence to reduce the negative impact of our bias. Don't worry - we'll get to that below...

Why is this important?

The more we tackle our biases, the more we are able to offer a workplace of psychological safety that’s built around trust. A Gallup study in 2017 found that only 3 of 10 people felt that their opinions counted at work. Though the concept of psychological safety has its fair share of naysayers, we now know that it contributes positively to:

??rates of errors

? turnover

? absenteeism

? decreased productivity

? quality, safety, and patient/client satisfaction

That same Gallup study estimated that by increasing psychological safety by 200%, organizations could realize a 12% increase in productivity, 27% reduction in turnover, and 40% reduction in safety incidents. That’s some serious opportunity lost by disinterest in investing in a culture of high performing teams.

Laying the foundation for high performing teams requires a focus on building psychological safety and addressing psychological needs. Once this foundation exists, teams are able to have hard conversations, identify serious issues or errors earlier, and be more creative and innovative in disrupting the market. When Google set out to build the perfect team, they were unable to predict any patterns for disruptive creativity and performance until they factored in psychological safety.?

In this week’s episode of Take A Break, Lennis and I talk with Sumedha Gajoo, founder of Quimby, about bias in leadership and the importance of emotional intelligence in teams. After dedicating herself to the study of mindfulness, she created Quimby, which provides an opportunity to better understand our stress reactions. Quimby builds upon this knowledge to enable teams to identify how interconnected they are with one another in order to provide safe working spaces. The app helps leaders better understand how to lead their employees in a way that fosters true performance through emotional intelligence.

In this conversation, we discuss the importance of collective action in the workplace. In order for these changes to be realized, three levels of buy-in and effort are required:

• The individual?
• The team?
• The organization

Without all three, momentum stalls and discouragement runs rampant. The top-down, bottom-up approach is the only truly effective way to build workplaces that embrace diversity and facilitate the healthiest approach to high performance.?

As is tradition, we close the episode with sharing a habit that helps prioritize energy and wellbeing and we've invited Sumedha to give us a glimpse into what keeps her balanced. She offers a seasonal challenge of simplicity to aid in our growth of mindfulness. Share with us a wellness habit you've been focusing on by commenting on this article or the video!

Listen to this week's episode here.

If you have specific questions about burnout prevention, either in organization or individually, please email us at [email protected].

Learn more about Caroline here.

Learn more about Lennis here.