Psychological Safety On Teams | Keynote Speaker David Burkus on Building Trusting Teams

Summary

Organizational 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

• 🧠 Psychological safety is crucial for team success, allowing members to express themselves and take risks without fear of negative repercussions.
• 😔 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.
• 🤝 Trust is a foundational element for psychological safety, but it must be accompanied by respectful behavior towards team members who take interpersonal risks.
• 🔄 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.
• 📈 High-performing teams consistently exhibit psychological safety, which is essential for learning from each other, supporting one another, and admitting mistakes.
• 🚀 Alan Mulally's leadership at Ford demonstrated the power of psychological safety in turning around a company's culture and performance.
• 🛑 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.
• 🤷‍♂️ Leaders must be willing to show vulnerability and admit their own mistakes to foster an environment where team members feel comfortable doing the same.
• 🗣️ Encouraging candor within the team by actively seeking out and valuing dissenting opinions is key to surfacing potential issues and fostering innovation.
• 🎉 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.
• 💪 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

00:00

😀 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.

05:00

🤔 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.

10:03

🔑 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.

15:05

🚀 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.

20:06

🔄 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.

25:07

🏆 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.

Keywords

💡Organizational psychologist

An organizational psychologist is a professional who studies the behavior and dynamics of individuals and teams within an organizational context. In the video, the speaker identifies as an organizational psychologist, emphasizing the importance of studying teams as the fundamental unit of work, and explores the factors that differentiate effective teams from those that are less successful.

💡Teamwork

Teamwork refers to the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in a coordinated way. The script highlights that work is inherently about teamwork, and the speaker's studies focus on understanding what makes some teams more successful and enjoyable to work with than others.

💡Psychological safety

Psychological safety is a concept where team members feel secure to express themselves, take risks, and be vulnerable without fear of negative consequences. The speaker discusses psychological safety as a critical factor in creating teams that are open to learning from mistakes and supporting each other, using the example of nurses in hospitals to illustrate the concept.

💡Trust

Trust is the confidence in the reliability, truth, or ability of others. In the context of the video, trust is foundational for creating a psychologically safe environment where team members feel comfortable admitting mistakes and sharing ideas. The speaker explains that while trust is important, it is part of a larger cycle that includes taking risks and respectful responses.

💡Risk-taking

Risk-taking in the video refers to the willingness of team members to engage in behaviors that could potentially lead to failure or embarrassment, such as admitting mistakes or challenging the status quo. The speaker argues that great teams are characterized by a higher rate of reported accidents, which actually signifies a culture of openness and learning from errors.

💡Mistakes

Mistakes are errors or faults that occur due to carelessness or ignorance. The script uses the concept of mistakes to discuss how they are handled within teams, with the speaker noting that teams with high psychological safety are more likely to report and learn from their mistakes, as opposed to hiding them due to fear of repercussions.

💡Leadership

Leadership in this context refers to the ability of individuals to guide, influence, and inspire a team towards achieving its goals. The speaker examines the role of leaders in fostering psychological safety and trust, using the example of Alan Mulally at Ford Motor Company to illustrate how leadership can transform a team's culture and performance.

💡Performance metrics

Performance metrics are the tools used to measure the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of a team's work. In the video, the speaker references a study that correlated leadership effectiveness with various performance metrics, such as patient satisfaction and turnaround times in hospital teams.

💡Alan Mulally

Alan Mulally is a former CEO of Ford Motor Company who is highlighted in the video for his leadership in turning around the company's culture and performance. The speaker uses Mulally's story to demonstrate the impact of psychological safety and vulnerability in leadership, showing how his approach led to significant improvements in Ford's financial results and team dynamics.

💡Growth mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work. The speaker connects the concept of a growth mindset to the idea of celebrating failure and learning from it, suggesting that teams with this mindset are more likely to continuously improve and adapt.

💡Vulnerability

Vulnerability in the video is portrayed as the act of showing weakness or uncertainty, which can be a strength in building trust within a team. The speaker advises leaders and team members to signal vulnerability as a means to initiate the cycle of trust, risk, and respect, using personal examples and the story of Mark Fields at Ford to illustrate the point.

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