Maya Middlemiss

Psychological safety refers to:

“an individual’s perception of the consequences of taking an interpersonal risk or a belief that a team is safe for risk taking in the face of being seen as ignorant, incompetent, negative, or disruptive. In a team with high psychological safety, teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members. They feel confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea.”1

Take a deep breath, focus on what they are saying (rather on the effect that the words are having on you), and ask as many questions as you can to comprehend their context

It is important to remember that disagreeing with team members about the work is an essential part of improving our process. Help people stay focused on the task, and notice how their disagreements help team members become even better at both collaboration and their work

Focusing too rigidly on getting straight to the point can mean that we miss out on an opportunity to find out a little bit more about each other – not necessarily through insights such as what someone had for lunch or dinner (although some people find that to be an important point of connection) – but through making space for laughter to emerge, expressing our doubts and struggles, and sharing those moments we are proud of in a space where we feel psychologically safe to do so

Building an environment where spontaneous interactions can take place goes a long way towards building strong relationships

a good working relationship will always bring with it difficult moments

Grant – a professor of management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania – went on to describe how he gathers anonymous feedback asynchronously from his students, focusing on “constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement”. He then emails the full set of suggestions to the entire class and summarises the findings in the next session, inviting more feedback on his interpretation of the suggestions, as well as telling the students how he proposes to address the issues raised

The most important thing about these one-to-ones is that they are regular, even if sometimes they only last five minutes. It is important for both of you to know that you have a slot where you can have uncomfortable conversations when you need to, rather than expecting a problem to be flagged every time that a one-to-one meeting is called

During the conversation, the team member reports on:

three things they have done well
two areas or skills which need improvement
one way in which the team lead and organisation can support them.
Finally, the ‘Oh’ brings one or two sentences on what they are most excited or grateful for in the organisation, and how they would like to develop their career.

Do this to review your process, not necessarily your results. Answer questions such as:

Is communication effective?
Do you feel supported?
Are there any blocks you constantly come across?