Psychological Safety On Teams | Keynote Speaker David Burkus on Building Trusting Teams
Summary
TLDROrganizational psychologist David Burkus explores the concept of psychological safety in teams, emphasizing its importance for fostering trust, risk-taking, and learning from mistakes. He uses the turnaround of Ford Motor Company under Alan Mulally as a case study, illustrating how embracing vulnerability, inviting candid feedback, and celebrating failure can transform a team from exhausting to exhilarating, ultimately leading to higher performance and growth.
Takeaways
- π§ Psychological safety is crucial for team success, allowing members to express themselves and take risks without fear of negative repercussions.
- π The absence of psychological safety can lead to a culture of hiding mistakes and lack of support, which is detrimental to team growth and performance.
- π€ Trust is a foundational element for psychological safety, but it must be accompanied by respectful behavior towards team members who take interpersonal risks.
- π A cycle of trust, risk-taking, and respect can lead to a virtuous circle of increasing trust and team performance, or a vicious cycle if not managed properly.
- π High-performing teams consistently exhibit psychological safety, which is essential for learning from each other, supporting one another, and admitting mistakes.
- π Alan Mulally's leadership at Ford demonstrated the power of psychological safety in turning around a company's culture and performance.
- π The importance of admitting and addressing problems openly was highlighted by Mark Fields' decision to show a 'red slide', signifying a problem that needed help.
- π€·ββοΈ Leaders must be willing to show vulnerability and admit their own mistakes to foster an environment where team members feel comfortable doing the same.
- π£οΈ Encouraging candor within the team by actively seeking out and valuing dissenting opinions is key to surfacing potential issues and fostering innovation.
- π Celebrating failure, when it leads to learning and growth, is a powerful way to reinforce the importance of taking risks and the value of the lessons derived from them.
- πͺ Developing a 'win or learn' mentality within the team encourages a growth mindset and continuous improvement, which is essential for long-term success.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the speaker's study as an organizational psychologist?
-The speaker studies work, particularly teams, and their dynamics in organizational settings.
Why does the speaker believe that work is inherently teamwork?
-The speaker believes work is teamwork because regardless of one's role, work is supported by the efforts of the team, and no one works entirely alone.
What is the difference between exhilarating teams and exhausting teams according to the speaker?
-Exhilarating teams are characterized by high energy, support, and excitement, while exhausting teams are marked by conflict, dread, and the feeling that individuals are carrying the weight alone.
What counterintuitive finding did Amy Edmonson's study reveal about teams with the highest-rated leaders?
-Teams with the highest-rated leaders also had the highest rates of reported accidents, indicating a higher level of psychological safety that encouraged admitting mistakes.
How does the concept of psychological safety differ from trust within a team?
-Psychological safety includes trust but extends to creating an environment where team members feel safe to take interpersonal risks, such as admitting mistakes or suggesting new ideas.
Why is admitting a mistake considered a significant interpersonal risk?
-Admitting a mistake is a significant interpersonal risk because it exposes the individual to potential ridicule, negative performance ratings, or judgment from the team.
How did Alan Mulally foster psychological safety at Ford Motor Company?
-Alan Mulally fostered psychological safety by encouraging open and honest communication, rewarding transparency, and demonstrating vulnerability, such as admitting challenges and asking for help.
What role did Mark Fields' red slide play in transforming the team's dynamics at Ford?
-Mark Fields' red slide demonstrated vulnerability and transparency, breaking the pattern of only presenting positive reports. This act encouraged other team members to be honest about their challenges, leading to more accurate problem-solving.
What three strategies does the speaker suggest for maintaining a cycle of psychological safety?
-The speaker suggests signaling vulnerability, calling for candor, and celebrating failure to maintain a cycle of psychological safety within a team.
How does the concept of 'win or learn' relate to psychological safety?
-The 'win or learn' concept promotes a growth mindset where mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities. This approach supports psychological safety by encouraging open discussion of both successes and failures.
Outlines
π The Power of Team Dynamics
The speaker, an organizational psychologist, discusses the importance of studying teams in a work environment. They highlight the varying experiences of being part of different teams, from those that are exhilarating and supportive to those that are exhausting and conflict-ridden. The talk introduces the concept that the difference between these team experiences lies beneath the surface, suggesting that trust and psychological safety play a significant role. The speaker also shares an anecdote about a student who named their thesis team in their will due to the intense experience, indicating the profound impact teams can have on individuals.
π€ The Paradox of High-Rated Leaders and Mistakes
The speaker delves into a study by Amy Edmonson, which found a counterintuitive relationship between highly rated leaders and higher rates of reported accidents in hospital teams. This finding was initially puzzling, but further research revealed that the 'great' teams felt empowered to report mistakes due to a sense of psychological safety. In contrast, less effective teams tended to hide errors, which not only unethically concealed information but also prevented the team from learning and improving. The speaker emphasizes that psychological safety is more than just trust; it's a cycle that involves taking risks and being met with respect, leading to a virtuous cycle of trust growth.
π Building Psychological Safety at Ford
The speaker recounts the story of Alan Mulally, the CEO of Ford Motor Company, who inherited a company in crisis and a team lacking psychological safety. Mulally recognized the need to foster an environment where team members felt safe to admit mistakes and propose unconventional ideas. He introduced a color-coded system for reporting progress, aiming to encourage transparency. However, initially, all reports were optimistic, reflecting a team culture that avoided admitting problems. It took eight weeks before an executive, Mark Fields, risked showing a 'red' slide indicating a problem, marking a turning point in the company's culture and performance.
π The Impact of Transparency on Team Success
The story of Mark Fields at Ford continues, where his decision to show a 'red' slide led to a significant cultural shift within the company. Instead of being punished for admitting a problem, Fields was applauded by Mulally, which sent a powerful message to the entire team. This event led to a more honest and colorful set of reports in subsequent meetings, allowing Ford to accurately assess its situation and make necessary changes. Over time, this culture of psychological safety and transparency contributed to Ford's remarkable turnaround from a $17 billion loss to a $6.6 billion profit.
π The Cycle of Trust and Its Reversal
The speaker discusses the cyclical nature of trust within a team, emphasizing that trust must be continuously nurtured through risk-taking and respectful responses. They highlight the importance of maintaining this cycle, using the example of Ford's leadership changes post-Mulally, which suggests a reversal of the trust cycle led to instability. The speaker provides three strategies for maintaining the cycle: signaling vulnerability, calling for candor, and celebrating failure. These strategies are aimed at fostering an environment where team members feel safe to express themselves and grow from their mistakes.
π Embracing a Win or Learn Mindset
In the final paragraph, the speaker concludes with the importance of adopting a 'win or learn' mentality within teams. They advocate for celebrating failures as opportunities for growth and learning, drawing a parallel with their personal experience in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, where the focus is on learning from every outcome. The speaker emphasizes that teams with psychological safety and a growth mindset are more likely to perform better and become the 'best teams ever,' allowing individuals to live their best lives through their work.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Organizational psychologist
π‘Teamwork
π‘Psychological safety
π‘Trust
π‘Risk-taking
π‘Mistakes
π‘Leadership
π‘Performance metrics
π‘Alan Mulally
π‘Growth mindset
π‘Vulnerability
Highlights
The importance of studying teams in organizational psychology due to the collaborative nature of work.
Contrasting experiences of being on exhilarating versus exhausting teams and their impact on energy and productivity.
Amy Edmonson's study on the correlation between highly rated leaders and higher rates of reported accidents, indicating a culture of transparency.
The concept of psychological safety as a key factor in team performance and its definition.
The difference between trust and psychological safety in creating a team environment where risks are taken and respected.
The cycle of psychological safety involving trust, risk-taking, and respectful response as a driver for team growth.
Alan Mulally's leadership at Ford Motor Company and his strategy to build psychological safety for organizational turnaround.
The significance of admitting mistakes and the impact on team dynamics and learning from failures.
Mark Fields' decision to report a problem honestly, leading to a cultural shift in Ford's leadership team meetings.
The importance of celebrating failure as a means to learn and strengthen the team's capabilities.
Three practical ways to maintain and enhance the cycle of psychological safety within a team.
Signaling vulnerability as a leader to initiate the cycle of trust and risk-taking.
Encouraging candor within teams to foster an environment where disagreement is valued and heard.
The value of celebrating failures as a way to reinforce trust and continuous learning within the team.
The long-term impact of psychological safety on team performance and the transformation of Ford Motor Company as a case study.
The necessity of a continuous effort to maintain psychological safety rather than a one-time team-building activity.
The final message on the power of psychological safety in enabling teams to live their best lives ever.
Transcripts
I'm an organizational psychologist by
training that's a nerdy way of saying I
study work in particular I study teams
because well the reality is that work is
teamwork I don't suppose any of you
thinks you do your work entirely by
yourself no you know whether you're a
leader or an individual contributor you
know that your work is supported by the
people on your team who have your back
and maybe not all of the time because
let's be real I study teams and some
teams tend to be
more enjoyable to work on than others
right we've all had that experience of
being on a team where ideas are just
flying the support is there you can feel
it it's tangible where you're excited to
go to things like meetings right and and
where you end every day with more energy
than you start we've all been on a team
like that in our
career and we've all been on teams that
are kind of the opposite of that we've
all been on teams where we feel like
everybody's fighting all of the time
we've all been on teams where we dread
jumping into that meeting room or onto
that video call we've all been on teams
where we feel like everyone every single
person on the team believes they're the
one carrying the weight I'm sorry let me
put that we've all been on teams where
we're carrying the
weight right and and if and look I was a
business school Professor for 10 years
so I realized that I've just described
every school team you've ever been put
on at any level of your education I get
it I get it I had a student once
actually after a senior thesis project
come to me and tell me that thanks to my
class she had thought deeply about what
was going to go in her will and I was
like that's a little weird because it's
an organizational behavior class but
okay I'll bite said yeah well I named
the people on my senior thesis team in
my will I want them to be my Paul
bearers and I thought that's a little
morbid why and she said well I think
it'd be great if they could let me down
one more
time I walked right into it I walked
right into it so I studyed teams and I
study what's the difference between
these teams and these teams the
exhilarating teams and the exhausting
teams and at the core of it one of the
things I find interesting is that when
we ask about the differences between
those teams so often we don't really
understand exactly what's going on
beneath the
surface let me give you an example a
colleague of mine Amy Edmonson at
Harvard University once did a study of a
myriad of a hospitals in the Boston area
in particular she studied the teams of
nurses that existed on the different
Wards so every hospital has your labor
and delivery intensive care etc those
are staffed by nurses and those teams
are led by a charge nurse the nurse in
charge of the whole team and what Amy
and her research team did was they gave
those nurses a variety of different
surveys and metc and they asked
essentially evaluate the effectiveness
of your team
leader and then they took those
evaluations and they looked at all of
the different performance metrics of the
teams and they found some really
interesting stuff stuff you would expect
like that the great leaders had higher
performance ratings had higher patient
satisfaction ratings had had faster
turnaround times were more able to deal
uh with with unexpected incidents Etc
but they found one thing really really
interesting counterintuitive in fact and
even Amy worried that like wait a minute
I don't understand what's going on here
they found that the teams that had the
highest rated leaders also had the
highest rates of reported accidents on
the
ward that's a little weird right okay so
great leaders and great teams make more
mistakes what's going on here it wasn't
until they started doing qualitative
research going in and talking with each
individual team watching how they
interacted
that they realized that when I say the
great teams had a higher rate of
reported accidents that word reported is
carrying an awful lot of weight see it
turns out what was happening was that
the great teams felt like they could
actually admit the mistakes that they
made prescribing errors Administration
errors Etc and the poor teams felt like
they had to hide those things right so
the poor teams in addition to being
massively unethical the poor teams were
keeping mistakes from each other not not
informing the rest of the team on what
was going on and really if you think
about it not letting that team continue
to learn from those mistakes come back
to that thought in a moment and when I
ask most people okay when you look
beneath the surface and you describe
this idea what's going on most people
give me the same answer most people say
oh well those teams had a bigger amount
of Trust on the team those teams had
higher levels of trust and that's true
but it doesn't totally Define what's
going on underneath the surface and the
culture of that team what Amy would say
is that those teams in addition to have
trust had a higher than average rate of
what she would call psychological safety
of psychological safety on the team this
is a climate on a team that's marked by
a sense of feeling safe to express
yourself and to take risks and an
important caveat here when I say risks I
don't mean like risky ethical Behavior I
don't mean like do going the wrong way
by patience Etc what I mean is
interpersonal risks and there's a lot of
things that fall into that category of
interpersonal risk admitting a mistake
is a huge interpersonal risk if you if
you don't have a level of Trust on the
team to where you feel like you're going
to have that held against you you feel
like you're going to be ridiculed for
that you're going to get a negative
performance rating for that Etc you're
you're going to be less willing to take
the risk of admitting a mistake but when
you look at several teams you also find
that things like speaking up because you
disagree with the consensus that's a
huge interpersonal risk right you might
be seen as someone who's rocking the
boat even just expressing an
out-of-the-box idea hey I know we've
never tried this but what if we did
that's an interpersonal risk you're
risking judgment by that and so these
teams of great leaders were more willing
to take those risks and it points to
what I look at as sort of the cycle of
psychological safety yes trust matters
you build trust on a team so that people
feel safe to take that
risk and then once they take that risk
we're not out of the woods yet because
we have to look at how the team is going
to respond to that risk you share a
crazy idea are you going to be ridiculed
you disagree are you going to be shot
down and labeled as the negative person
on the team you admit a failure you're
going to have that held against you what
we need and what Amy Edmonson saw was
that we need teams who will respond to
people taking interpersonal risks with a
sense of
respect now you've all been in this
scenario whether you realize it or not
you've probably been in a situation
where you shared your brilliant idea you
think it's totally awesome and then
somebody says Ah we can't do that we
don't have the budget for that we tried
something like that a couple years ago
it didn't work right or you speak up to
to disagree and all of a sudden the
whole team just responds to you shoots
you down and say why you have to be so
negative and judgmental all the time
when you're in that situation where you
let's say admit a failure take that
interpersonal risk of saying here's how
I messed up and what I learned and
people hold that over you how much do
you feel like you trust the
team you don't and that's why it's more
than just trust it's this cycle of
psychological safety you build trust on
a team so that people take the
interpersonal risks that are then met
with respectful Behavior you're heard
you're listened to you're considered
you're valued and what happens is trust
grows it's a virtuous cycle if done
right and a vicious cycle if done wrong
and when we look at the research on the
highest performing teams we consistently
find that psychological safety is
present in just about every team in
every industry in every sector in every
generation in every demographic
why because psychological safety is what
gets a team to learn from each other and
support each other psychological safety
is what convinces people on a team to
take the risk of asking for help and
it's also what encourag urges people to
take the risk of saying I messed up here
I fixed it I messed up here or I messed
up here and I need your help and then we
can have a conversation about how we get
better over
time when I think about this plays out I
I think about one of my favorite case
studies in psychological safety and
actually one of my favorite leaders of
all time a man named Alan malali and
Alan malali was the CEO of Ford Motor
Company in about 2006 when they needed a
turnaround
Bill Ford the great-grandson of Henry
Ford realized he couldn't turn the
company around the company's stock was
trading at a dollar a share what they
told shareholders that year was that if
they did everything according to plan
they were going to lose 17
billion yeah right I thought my
checkbook looked nasty right $17 billion
loss and so this was the the company
that Allan inherited as CEO but he also
inherited a team that was very low on
psychological safety and that's the
nicest way I can put it this was a team
where people were afraid to admit
mistakes because they knew they were
going to get stepped over this is a team
where people saw their competition for
promotion to the next level as more
important than their competition meaning
the other Automotive companies this is a
team where if you showed a kink in your
armor someone would stab you in it this
is a team where if you shared out of
the-box idea someone would ridicule you
for it have you ever been on a team like
this you don't have to point fingers at
anyone in this room there's a thousand
people in this room please don't tell me
who it was but did you get your best
work out of a team like that of course
not and what Allan identified very very
early is that that was what was holding
back this team from figuring out what
they needed to do he needed to build a
sense of psychological Safety Not only
on the senior leadership team but down
throughout the entire organization
but to start he wanted to send a message
to people that we need to be a company
where we tell it like it is we need to
be a place where we admit our
vulnerabilities and our failures even if
they even if they seem damaging to our
reputation I I'll give you an example of
this very first day as the new leader of
the company every publicly traded
company does the same thing you hold a
press conference the new leader comes
out gives a speech blah blah blah
shareholder value blah blah blah blah
efficiencies blah blah blah I hope you
believe that the stock is going to go up
like everybody does that show and then
there's often like a Q&A time and Allan
was not from the automotive industry and
all of the reporters who were there all
of the media was there knew that and so
they decided to throw him some curveball
questions my favorite one one of the
very first questions he got asked hey Mr
malali what kind of car do you
drive some of you can see where this is
going keep in mind
Allan is the new CEO of
Ford Motor
Company so put a car in your head that
would be your answer a make and a model
well not a make because you know put a
car in your head what you think okay
here's what Allan
said I drive Al Lexus it's the finest
car on the
market what are you doing what
that's not even an americanmade
car very quickly he pivoted to this idea
of that's why I'm excited about the
opportunity at Ford I recognize we have
some work to do I believe that we can
take them on head on and we can compete
with them otherwise I wouldn't have
taken this job so very quickly pivots it
into that but the message is sent I am
going to call it like it is and I'm
going to reward people who call it like
it
is I need that sense of psychological
safety where you're willing to tell me
what's going on the other thing he did
to the senior leadership team is they
asked them to engage in a regular series
of meetings where they would come
together and they would talk about how
they were performing according to the
turnaround plan he called these the
business plan
review probably because he couldn't
think of a better name that's all and at
each of these meetings now there's about
a dozen and a half senior leaders in The
Firm this is the core team that if we
don't turn this team around the rest of
it's going to fall apart and they went
over hundreds of metrics 312 different
metrics because this is a global firm so
that could get a little confusing so
what Allan asked people to do is as
you're giving your reports do us all a
favor and color code your slides for us
so that we know okay is this good is
this bad where are we so color code your
slides green yellow or red a green slide
would mean everything's going according
to plan right we're on Pace we're on
plan Etc a yellow slide would mean we
have some problems but we have a plan to
get back onto plan and a red slide would
mean I need help we have something wrong
and I don't know what it is or how to
fix it but I need you to be informed and
I need your help that would be a red
slide everybody got it okay now first
meeting happened in October 7 a.m.
Thunderbird conference room Dearborn
Michigan attendance was mandatory okay
actually as Allan would put it it's not
mandatory to attend the meeting but it's
also not mandatory to be a member of the
senior leadership team right so
attendance is mandatory and everyone
assembles their Master deck of all of
these reports and all the of success in
all the color-coded slides there's
312 slides and guess what color they
are
no they're all green every single slide
is
green in a company that's going to lose
$17
billion what is that well we've all been
on a team like that that is everyone
knows what's wrong but no one feels safe
to share it we've all been on a team
like that and by the way this wasn't
just like one meeting and and Allan said
very funny okay now tell us how it
really is this went on for eight weeks
week two 312 green slides week three 312
green slides on and on and Allan just
kept trying to say hey take this risk we
need to talk about it we can't manage a
secret and it wasn't until week eight
when something changed
on week eight one executive decided he
had to take a risk and truthfully he was
sort of forced to do it Mark Fields Mark
was in charge of the launch of the Ford
Edge you all remember the edge The Edge
was about to be rolled out about to be
launched it was being produced in
Oakville Ontario and there was a a
bottleneck there was a quality problem
that could be fixed but had to be fixed
manually and that was delaying the
shipping out of all of the cars and Mark
realized on a Wednesday afternoon
preparing for the Thurs morning meeting
that they were going to have to delay
the launch because there was no way they
were getting the cars there in
time and so Mark is talking with his
team and he says you know we need to
tell him and I think this is one of
those Reds that Allan keeps bumbling on
about and his team it's funny his team
goes you can't do that Mark you can't do
that Mark if you're the first Red Slide
we're all gone you can't be the first
Red Slide I don't know guys I think we
need to tell them I think have you ever
been in a
situation where somebody finally comes
to you with a problem and you're like oh
it would have been so much better if you
came to me with this problem eight weeks
ago right this is what's happening so
finally though in week eight Mark Fields
makes a decision Mark decides to change
one slide
red it's Mark's turn they come to him
yep on the edge launch we're red we're
going to have to delay don't have an
estimate of when it'll
be yep it was that
quiet I interviewed Alan to get all of
the details the real details of the
story he told me everybody just
alternated between looking at
Mark and looking at
Allan looking at Mark taking a good long
look at
Mark by
Mark and then looking back at Allan
Allan told me he felt like he was
waiting for everyone to everyone was
waiting for him to like
hit a button under the desk right and
two big people in suits and earpieces
were going to come out and just like
hook mark up and just escort him out
right or a trap door would just fall
open but that's not what he did instead
he started clapping hey Mark that's
great visibility all right team what can
we do for them and they started talking
about the issues that Mark was facing
they started to put a plan together they
didn't solve the problem overnight I
wish I could tell you like that one
meeting solved the whole problem but it
didn't and in fact it did didn't really
change how any of the other Executives
other team members responded when they
had to prep their slides for the next
week the next week they showed up and
the deck looked the exact same marks one
problem and no one else is willing to
admit a problem but I'll let you in on a
little
secret nobody thought Mark was going to
be in that
meeting Allan actually asked Mark to
come there early so when the rest of the
team filed into the room Allan and Mark
were sitting right there can you imagine
the confusion right like did Mark's
still here did he's not fired did he get
promoted what is happening right
now and Allan would tell me that moment
not the Clapping but the moment when
everyone walked in and saw that Mark
came to them with a problem he was
respected heard honored and helped by
the team and not punished for something
that was outside of his
control Allan told me that one moment
was the moment that changed
forward because week 10 guess what the
slides look like it was a sea of color
we had greens we had yellows we had Reds
we had an accurate picture of what was
actually going on at the company and
little by little they could make changes
and little by little over a decade they
went from a company that was losing $17
billion to a company that in his final
year as leader posted a
6.6 billion doll profit yeah the share
price went from a dollar to s $17 a
share I know what you're thinking man if
I could go back in
time and buy Ford stock and Bitcoin in
2006 all right maybe not the Bitcoin
part Allen showed the board a 17-fold
increase in the stock price and when he
was ready to announce his resignation he
showed the board one other thing he
showed them a recommendation for who
should succeed him as
CEO I'll give you one guess
who we
recommended Mark Fields first person to
turn his slide
red that's a great story isn't
it I would love thank you
yeah you have no idea what's coming I
would love to end the story
there Mark Fields made it 18 months
before he was asked by the board to
resign and ever since then there's been
sort of a revolving door of people in
the leadership of the
company I'm willing to bet the board
wishes they had Allan back Allan not
willing to do it he's having a blast in
retirement why why did that happen
remember what I told you at the top it's
a cycle you build trust on a team so
that the team feels safe to take those
risks and then you meet those risks with
respect respectful behavior that honors
the person and supports the person and
Trust increases if you don't do all
three the cycle
reverses and so while Allen was capable
of forcing that cycle to go upward the
whole time not everybody was this is not
something you do once we don't just say
hey we need to build trust on a team
let's all fall backwards and try and
catch each other not recommended right
let's all do the boards and planks and
crossing the invisible River let's do
some let's take a personality test let's
do whatever to build trust and then
we're good we got trust let's move on to
the next thing this is not something
that works like that those things are
great great but they're the beginning we
need to be monitoring that cycle whether
you're a leader or just a teammate
what's going on in your team are you in
that cycle of trust risk and
respect and as we think about this let
me give you three ways no matter what
your role is that you can keep that
cycle going number one signal
vulnerability why vulnerability to your
team is the beginning of saying that you
trust them it's you taking that risk by
the way leaders in the room I'm speaking
to you I'm going to be speaking to later
this week too but uh I'm speaking to you
go
first be willing to be vulnerable about
your mistakes your confusion I'm not and
and by the way when I say vulnerability
here I don't mean like I don't mean you
have to leave from here go back to your
team and say like well this guy Dr Burke
has said we need to be V more vulnerable
so I I want you to want you to know I
feel like my parents never loved me I'm
not I don't mean
that I don't mean like vulnerability
like you have to tell your whole team
you know I never had a date for junior
prom I got dumped a week beforehand
which is a true story but we're going to
move on you
don't have to sh but sometimes just
saying I don't know in this situation or
sometimes just coming to them and and
saying hey you know earlier in my career
I did this and it was a huge mess up and
here's what I learned we know from the
research both psychological and actually
neurological research that when people
show a flash of vulnerability it makes
the person who's receiving it feel
trusted and they are more likely to
respond with trustworthy
Behavior so if you're a leader you go
first and if you have a leader on your
team who's not willing to go first then
guess what you're the new leader in
terms of vulnerability you go first
however you're comfortable you only have
to be as vulnerable as you are
comfortable in the moment to Kickstart
the cycle and then the cycle will
increase number two call for cander on
your teams more often what I mean by
cander remember the other interpersonal
risk speaking up because you
disagree sometimes when I talk about
trust and psychological safety people
confuse that with sort of this idea that
you're never going to hear things you
disagree with that's not psychological
safety psychological safety is that even
though I disagree I feel safe saying
that to the team and I feel like they're
going to hear me and listen to me now
some of us do this some of some teams do
this well but other teams I feel like I
feel like we think that we ask for dis
disagreeing opinions we think we're
calling for cander enough like we open
the door a teeny bit but not really and
here here's what I mean like gotten one
of those emails right that says you know
it's it's big thesis statement it's text
on text on text it's pages long you
sprain your finger scrolling through the
whole thing right and then at the very
bottom it says thoughts question
mark that's not what I mean when I say
call for cander my only thought is your
email's way too long but that's me
personally but that's not really a true
invitation to like a robust discussion
about what we agree and disagree that's
not what I mean or other times we'll be
you ever had this happen to you we're at
the end of a meeting there's a minute
left before our next meeting and
somebody flashes out whoever's running
the meeting just goes okay well before
we wrap up any questions concerns
clarifications you ever received that
one questions concerns clarifica I love
that one right because it just rolls off
the tongue and everybody knows we don't
actually mean it because it's so simple
to say questions concerns clarification
it's sort of like it's like when you're
at a wedding you're getting towards the
end and the officient does that thing
where they say okay now if anyone has
any reason why these two should not be
wed speak now or forever hold
your questions concerns
clarifications you know you're not
supposed to say anything right nobody
says anything in that unless you're on a
soap
opera and you've been dead for two
seasons nobody says anything that's not
what I mean what I mean is like what if
we took it on ourselves what if we took
it on ourselves to to have more cander
what if instead of hey anyone have any
questions we said things like hey before
we wrap up it sounds like we're headed
towards consensus what am I
missing do you get the difference or
even just from any questions to what
questions do we
have right see one is like if you don't
understand this is the one minute I'll
give you to ask for clarification the
other is I'm confident that I was not
clear enough that I messed up explaining
something and that you probably need a
little clarification from me what
questions do you have for me one puts it
on them the other puts it on me that's
what I mean when I say call for that
sense of cander and then the last one
celebrate failure and I don't mean here
I don't mean like you are grossly
incompetent in your job you have
compromised the safety of multiple
people you have consistently
underperformed in every review here's a
trophy I don't I don't mean that that's
not what I mean when I say celebrate
failure what I mean is that when someone
comes to you as a leader or as a team
member and they come to you because they
made a
mistake celebrate the amount of trust
that had to happen for that moment to
happen celebrate the
transparency in the fact that that they
were willing to tell you all of the
details celebrate the fact that six
months or a year from now we're going to
have learned from that mess up and we're
going to have been a stronger more
capable team
what I mean when I say celebrate failure
is is is this I I for the last 20-some
years I competed trained now coach
competitors and travel all over helping
people in this really esoteric martial
art called Brazilian jiu-jitsu I know
it's as weird as it sounds uh it's like
wrestling but you do it in pajamas right
and instead of pinning someone you're
trying to hyperextend their limb or
choke them
unconscious now now if you're a
competitor in this sport your first
competition you probably got a little
nervous right and we tell everyone the
exact same thing before they get out in
their first competition there are only
two options in a competition it's not
win or lose it's win or learn you win
we'll raise your hand we'll celebrate
we'll put a medal around you we'll be
super excited you lose we'll go back to
the gym We'll go here's what you did and
here's how to avoid that and you will
get stronger as a
result and that's what I mean when I say
celebrate failure and that's funny when
I say psychological safety as a whole
it's about teams embracing a win or
learn mentality being comfortable
talking to each other about our wins but
also about our learning moments so that
we as a team figure out how to perform
better figure out how to perform
stronger and tap into what we might even
call that growth mindset that's what
propels more than anything else propels
those exhausting teams to the
exhilarating ones teams that have
adopted that win or learn mentality
they're the ones that consistently
perform better they're the ones that
consistently grow in trust and they're
the ones that become what I like to call
the best teams ever and because of today
the teams that allow people to live
their best lives
ever thank you all so much for having
me David burus
Browse More Related Video
Rebuilding Ford : How Organizational Change saved them during Crisis Under Alan Mulally's Leadership
Learn about the National Standard - Organizational Culture
Become Antifragile: turn stress into growth
Conflict β Use It, Donβt Defuse It | CrisMarie Campbell & Susan Clarke | TEDxWhitefish
M4 L10 Your Journey in Leading People
5 Levels of Learning all Students NEED to Master
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)