Insights on fast flow
Change the system, not the person. Why well-being needs to start with organizational change.
Over the past decade, organizations have given increasing attention to employee well-being. Recognising the importance of fostering a healthy, happy and supported workforce, and the obvious benefits to business outcomes, employers are keen to emphasize how employee well-being is a key focus of their organization.
Yet over half of employees believe their employer is guilty of well-being washing and a recent research study by William Fleming Oxford's Wellbeing Research Centre concludes that individual well-being interventions have little to no impact. Putting some possibly justifiable cynicism to one side for a moment, what could be causing this gap between intention and impact?
Addressing misconceptions on Psychological Safety to improve performance
Psychological safety is a foundational requirement for organizations seeking fast flow and effective change. We have seen a couple of articles recently that suggest psychological safety could have a downside, so we decided to reflect on the issue.
An article in Fortune in 2023 suggested that performance is improved when everyone is ‘held accountable’ and implied that this was at odds with psychological safety. Another (Hive Learning) suggested that being ‘comfortable’ was the opposite of psychological safety, though it did acknowledge that you could be comfortable with either scenario.
In this article, we review the benefits of psychological safety, why these benefits occur, whether or not there is a downside, and what you should be ‘comfortable’ with.
The financial value of psychological safety in technology organizations
The research from DORA shows that, for technology organizations, psychological safety is a double whammy. An absence of psychological safety will contribute to poor software delivery performance, deployment pain, and employee burnout. On the other hand, the presence of psychological safety will contribute to improved software delivery performance, organizational performance, and job satisfaction. It’s double or quits.
Our organizational OS needs an upgrade: why knowledge works needs a new approach
Organizations engaged in knowledge work must recognise that many of their current ways of working are the legacy of a bygone era and are no longer applicable or effective in today’s world. They need to adopt a new approach to how they do their work. Knowledge work requires teamwork and collaboration; it requires that people are engaged and switched on, able to use all their talents and creativity to solve hard and novel problems.
Using ideas from ‘Humble Inquiry’ to ask instead of tell
To make it possible for those who are lower down in the organizational hierarchy to feel psychologically safe to speak up when the situation demands that they do, or when asked to do so directly, we need to create good relationships between people - relationships that are built on openness and trust. Schein’s argument is that ‘humble inquiry’ is the method by which such relationships are forged. These relationships need to be created before they’re needed, we need to invest in them upfront so that they are ready when the situation arises.
Psychological Safety: A Tailwind For Success
Sometimes psychological safety is seen as being something ‘soft’, that it’s all about everybody being nice to each other all the time. Yet ‘Sooner Safer Happier’ is a book about business agility aimed at business leaders - leaders whose goal is for their business to succeed and thrive. And one of the key ingredients of such business success is psychological safety.
Making Blameless Post-mortems Work Well
Post-mortems are opportunities to learn and get value from incidents in production - value that we have already paid for upfront; they are opportunities to improve our understanding of our systems, both social and technological.
For our post-mortems to be effective and work well, they need to be blameless - so that we stay curious and ask good questions, and so that people feel safe to speak up. Being blameless really does matter!
Making the most of your people: key takeaways from the book ‘The Fearless Organization’
Psychological safety is about making people feel safe to speak up, enabling and empowering them to make full use of all their talents and creativity at work, and not be silenced by fear. To thrive in today’s complex and fast-moving world, organizations need to make the most of their people; they need them to bring their brains and their voices to work. For that to happen, they first need to create psychological safety.
In her book ‘The Fearless Organization’, Amy Edmondson describes exactly what psychological safety is, the positive benefits it can bring for organizations and for individuals, and gives us a clear framework for how we can start along the road - zig-zagging though it may be! - to create psychological safety in our own workplaces.
If, like me, you’ve heard the term ‘psychological safety’, have wondered what it’s all about and are interested in finding out more, then you should definitely read this book.