Rebuilding Psychological Safety
Access session materials at tinyurl.com/atdorgdevtm
Rebuilding Psychological Safety And Trust Post-COVID
Access session materials at tinyurl.com/atdorgdevtm
Agenda
Intro
Learning Objectives
Reflections
Psychological Safety
SAFE Framework
Case Study Example
Your Turn
Q&A
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Bio
Vice President of Consulting, Talent Metrics
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Ice Breaker
What would you most like to learn about Psychological Safety?
Respond below
https://tinyurl.com/orgdevtm1
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2 Minute Drill: Your COVID-19 Experiences
Think back to your experiences during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis
Jot down three words to describe your work experiences during the pandemic, discuss with your table mates. What commonalities do you see?
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2 Minute Drill: Co-Worker COVID-19 Experiences
Think back to your coworkers’ or subordinates’ experiences during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis
Jot down three ways you tried to understand their experiences during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis and discuss with your table mates. What commonalities do you see?
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What is a Psychological Contract?
An unwritten, intangible agreement between an employee and their employer that describes the informal commitments, expectations and understandings that make up their relationship.
What is the promise your organization makes to its employees?
What is the promise that the employees commit to for the organization?
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Physical Safety
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Psychological Safety
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What is Psychological Safety?
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.
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Data can be your organization’s pulse
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Return to Office
Almost 50% of organizations are looking for employees to return to the office full-time
Pressure to go back to ‘normalcy’
Increased mental distress amongst employees
Does your organization want to go back to the office? Hybrid? Or fully remote?
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Outcomes of Psychological Safety
High Psychological safety yields
innovation
team participation
Low Psychological safety yields
lower participation
quiet quitting
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Impact
What was the impact of lack of physical safety on your workforce on their psychological safety? And how would you know?
How do employees know that they are physically safe?
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How can we feel SAFE?
Support-employees perceive support
Alignment-aligned with manager and organization
Fellowship-employees feel team cohesion
Experimentation-employees can experiment and fail
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SAFE-ty
How would you know whether your organization was SAFE?
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| Meaning | Managerial Behavioral indicator | Data point | Subordinate Behavioral indicator | Data point |
Support | employees must perceive support from the organization as a whole |
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Alignment | employees must feel alignment with their managers and the organizational mission |
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Fellowship | employees must feel fellowship with each other and develop team cohesion |
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Experimentation | employees must be allowed to experiment and potentially fail |
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Case study: Nonprofit organization
Non-profit organization
-helps the resettlement of refugees
7 board members
20-30 employees at a given time
Provides support to refugees as they resettle in the United States
Pre-pandemic: traditional org
Went fully virtual during the pandemic
Planned to move back into either hybrid or full return to the office
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Case study: Data Sources
Employee engagement measure
-included some items related to psychological safety
Diversity climate measure
-included items related to psychological safety climate
Behavioral data
-reviews of team meetings to identify if all team members contributed
-review of ideas and implementation improvements in processes
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Case study: General Findings
Employee engagement measure
Significant differences between senior leadership and frontline employees on safety and mission items 100% of C-suite was engaged and wanted to return, less than 40% of front-line workers
Diversity climate measure
-differing experiences of employees based on gender and race
Behavioral data
Not all team members were contributing during pandemic
Wanted more flexibility in work schedules (i.e., hybrid)
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Case study: Managerial Expectations
How can managers be more supportive?
-review of managerial feedback found low levels of support from managers during transition to remote work
How can managers support alignment with the organization’s mission?
-Managers connect organizational decisions back to organizational mission during meetings
How can managers generate fellowship?
-Managers focused on reinforcing norms of behavior among team members (i.e., clarifying team member roles and deadlines; hybrid work schedules)
How can managers allow experimentation?
-know what risks are reasonable, be clearer about listening
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Case study: Employee Behavior
How can employees be more supportive?
-teamwork feedback in employee engagement and diversity climate measure
How can team members support alignment with the organization’s mission?
-asking team members to explain how initiatives are related to overall mission
How can team members generate fellowship?
-team members attended microlearning session on teamwork
How can team members support experimentation?
-know what risks are reasonable, be clearer about listening to one another
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| Meaning | Managerial Behavioral indicator | Data point | Subordinate Behavioral indicator | Data point |
Support | employees must perceive support from the organization as a whole | -conversations with subordinates | recorded debriefs with subordinates | Are employees receiving support? | Meeting notes review |
Alignment | employees must feel alignment with their managers and the organizational mission | -reiterating core vision to employees | engagement scores on alignment | Are employees connected to mission? | engagement measure results Quality of projects |
Fellowship | employees must feel fellowship with each other and develop team cohesion | -effectively manage team meetings | team breakdown of participation scores | Do teams coordinate effectively? | Performance data Teamwork feedback Project management software usage |
Experimentation | employees must be allowed to experiment and potentially fail | -did allow for innovation among their team members | team-level innovation | Are teams producing newer ideas? | Idea quality Performance data |
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| Meaning | Managerial Behavioral indicator | Data point | Subordinate Behavioral indicator | Data point |
Support | employees must perceive support from the organization as a whole |
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Alignment | employees must feel alignment with their managers and the organizational mission |
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Fellowship | employees must feel fellowship with each other and develop team cohesion |
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Experimentation | employees must be allowed to experiment and potentially fail |
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Let’s be SAFE together!
Work with your group to complete page 2 of the handout for your organization
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Takeaways
Find safety related concepts where you can (i.e., measurement and behaviors)
Emphasize psychological safety to leaders and management
Use the data within your organization to identify issues of psychological safety
Communicate proactively
Renegotiate the psychological contract
Remember that this process is iterative! Not everything can be done at once.
Follow up measurement is key!
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Questions and Answers
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Contact:
Sy Islam, PhD
732-596-7930
https://twitter.com/IOSyIslam
Leaders Assemble: Leadership in the Marvel Cinematic Universe www.tinyurl.com/amazonmcu
Access session materials at tinyurl.com/atdorgdevtm