{"id":21391,"date":"2023-09-02T19:33:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T09:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/margiewarrellold.flywheelsites.com\/?p=21391"},"modified":"2023-09-02T19:33:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T09:33:00","slug":"without-psychological-safety-fear-stifles-truth-and-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/margiewarrell.com\/without-psychological-safety-fear-stifles-truth-and-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"Without psychological safety, fear stifles truth and courage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NASA Challenger disaster. BP\u2019s Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Volkswagen emissions scandal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What went wrong?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigations produced multi-layered findings. Yet beneath the complexity lay a common element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fear. People were afraid to speak the truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so, they didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerns weren\u2019t shared, mistruths were rewarded, and valuable information was filtered down as it moved up the chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I regularly speak to leaders who share the importance of developing talent, building strong teams, and fostering great cultures. And yet time and time again, people in their organizations tell me that they regularly hold back from speaking candidly for fear of what might happen if they do. It’s rare that they have a leader who is actively scaring them. More often they simply don’t assess that the reward is worth the potential risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fear of what could go wrong often stops people from taking action and speaking up to make things more right. The presence of fear in organizations exacts a tax that is rarely immediately obvious. Of course, people don\u2019t always die, and companies don\u2019t always go bankrupt or fork out billions in settlements. More often, the cost of fear at play in workplaces is a slow leaking drip of value lost, creativity stymied and potential squandered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People stop taking initiative, asking questions, sharing ideas, and confiding mistakes. Decisions are delayed, plans are polished\u2026.and polished some more. Innovation slows. Silo walls thicken. Problems aren’t voiced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ve seen. I’ve seen it. The reality is that people play it safe unless they feel safe enough to do otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

People play it safe unless they feel safe to do otherwise.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The biggest problems in organizations can usually be traced back to the conversations that did not <\/em>occur because people didn’t feel safe enough to have them. When leaders don\u2019t make people feel<\/em> safe to risk their vulnerability and speak truthfully, they put the whole organization at risk. As Amy Edmondson<\/a> shared on my latest podcast<\/a> \u201cUnsafe cultures endanger everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s why psychological safety \u2013 a term Edmonson popularized and defines as \u2018permission for candor\u2019 and taking interpersonal risks \u2013 has been found to be the strongest determinant of high-performing teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, leaders play a pivotal role in building psychological safety and fostering what I call a \u2018culture of courage\u2019; every leader is, as my colleague Sarah Jensen Clayton<\/a> says, a \u2018chief culture architect.\u2019 The more power they hold, the more impact they wield. For better or, as is too often the case, for worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If leaders aren\u2019t proactively de-risking acts of vulnerability, they are inadvertently encouraging counter-productive behaviors and reinforcing fear-based norms that stymie growth and hold potential dormant. Individual and collective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“The cognitive calculus errs toward caution” – Amy Edmondson<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Emotions drive behavior, not logic. Telling employees to \u2018be brave\u2019 and \u2018speak up\u2019 only stokes cynicism if it’s not accompanied by consistent evidence those behaviors will be rewarded and an absence of any reason to doubt otherwise. And in today’s hybrid working environment in which many people are now connecting remotely, it\u2019s all the easier to hide behind our screens and rationalize caution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When people feel insecure, or have any<\/em> reason to hesitate before speaking, it reinforces cautious ‘play-it-safe’ norms. After all, no one ever got fired for saying what their boss wanted to hear. At least not in the short term, which is where we naturally focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While leaders have the biggest role in bending the cultural norms toward courage, every person, regardless of role, can play a role to make others feel more comfortable in engaging in the conversations that matter most (this includes you.) Because just as fear is contagious, so too is courage. Here are a few ways to help you do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Trade cleverness for curiosity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When Satya Nadella<\/a> took the reins of Microsoft he saw a need to shift from a culture of experts to a culture of curiosity and went about instilling a growth mindset across the company. He encouraged employees to shift from being \u2018know-it-alls\u2019 to \u2018learn-it-alls\u2019 and role-modelled it himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s face it, none of us know what we\u2019re wrong about. As Daniel Kahneman noted, most people have \u201cexcessive confidence in what we believe we know\u201d coupled with an \u201cinability to acknowledge the full extent of our ignorance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So make a habit of asking questions before espousing your opinion. Get comfortable practicing a deliberate \u2018I don\u2019t know.\u2019 Most of all, listen with an openness to change your mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Destigmatize miss-steps (starting with sharing your own)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Bernie Marcus, Home Depot co-founder, always started his weekly management meetings by sharing something he had not<\/em> succeeded at in the previous week. By openly sharing his failings, he made it safer for others to try new things and scale the learning across the company by freely sharing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re a committed learner, you will inevitably make the odd \u2018miss-step\u2019 as you fumble up the learning curve. When you do, don\u2019t keep it to yourself. Not only does sharing your learning enlighten others, but you ameliorate the shame associated with imperfect outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n