We are living in a business world that is going through mass transformation regarding human capital. Manufacturers do not have enough of the “right employees” and, with 7 million job openings in the U.S. each day, employees have more job options than ever before.

1. Peak Performance Speaker
Foster Teams that Support Psychological Safety
We are living in a business world that is going through mass transformation regarding
human capital. Manufacturers do not have enough of the “right employees” and, with 7
million job openings in the U.S. each day, employees have more job options than ever
before.
Typically, the “right employees” are defined as the highest performers within an
organization. How can manufacturers create an environment for the “right employees” to
thrive? The need for high performing employee’s cuts across all sectors of employment. One
employer, Google, decided to try to crack the code of what made a great, high performing
employee. In a two-year study of its internal workforce, Google asked the question what
makes a high performing team. The answer: psychological safety, the belief that you won’t
be punished when you make a mistake.
The behaviours that create psychological safety — conversational turn-taking and empathy
— are part of the same unwritten rules we often turn to, as individuals, when we need to
establish a bond. And those human bonds matter as much at work as anywhere else.
Today, people work in teams more than ever before. One study, published in the “Harvard
Business Review” found that ‘‘the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative
activities has ballooned by 50 percent or more’’ over the last two decades.
To further understand what psychological safety is, it’s best to look at the work of Harvard
Business School professor, Amy Edmondson. Ms. Edmonson suggests that psychological
safety has these components:
• First, it is a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for
interpersonal risk taking.
• Psychological safety is a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject
or punish someone for speaking up.
• It describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect
in which people are comfortable being themselves.
How can your organization create psychological safety? Consider changing the behaviours
and norms within your corporate culture. Here are four things psychologically safe
organizations practice.
1. Approach conflict as a collaborator, not an adversary. True success at work comes
from a win-win result. When we experience a perceived loss, this loss triggers
attempts to re-establish fairness through competition, criticism or disengagement.

2. Start with the mindset of achieving a mutually desired outcome, which will quell our
instinctual “fight or flight” reaction.
2. Speak human to human — a “just like me” mindset. We all have universal needs
such as respect, competence, social status and autonomy. When you are having an
intense negotiation, for example, the other party is just like you and aims to walk
away happy. This person has beliefs, perspectives, and opinions, just like you. This
person has hopes, anxieties, and vulnerabilities, just like you, and this person wants
to feel respected, appreciated, and competent, just like me.
3. Anticipate reactions and plan countermoves. Before you engage with a co-worker,
proactively think of how the other person will react to you. Lean into uncomfortable
conversations head on by preparing for likely reactions. Think about your main
points. What are three ways the recipient of my message is possibly going to react?
How will I handle each of those scenarios?
4. Replace blame with curiosity. Borrow a technique from renowned marriage
counsellor, John Gottman. His work shows that blame and criticism reliably escalate
conflict, leading to defensiveness and eventually to disengagement. Adopt a learning
mindset, knowing you don’t have all the facts. State the problematic behaviour or
outcome as an observation, and use factual, neutral language. If you have an
employee who is underperforming, you may say “In the past two months there’s
been a noticeable drop in your participation during meetings and progress appears
to be slowing on your project.”
If you create this sense of psychological safety within your organization, you can expect to
see higher levels of engagement, peak performance, and increased motivation to tackle
difficult problems, more learning and development opportunities.
When you work with our peak performance speakers, you will increase the success of your
business. Our core job is to help our clients run their businesses with confidence and
develop psychological safety for peak performance.
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