Psychological Safety
To solicit maximum contribution value out of a diverse team, you must create psychological safety (defined by HBS Professor Amy Edmonson as "a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up", her study here).
Brene Brown recently mentioned Google's Project Aristotle, which was basically a quest to find out what drives high performance teams (in short, vulnerability and psychological safety; in long, this NYT piece on the project by Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Duhigg is excellent).
I was struck by a conversation I had with an ex-military leader, now corporate executive, who described how he launched a rigorous "After Action Review" process to debrief a recent project: "I invited everyone who participated in the project in any way to join a zoom call, and established from the beginning, 'This is a "permission to tell the truth" kind of moment. Some of what we did was awesome, and some wasn't. Your being honest in this conversation is critical to helping us become the kind of organization we want to be.'"
And with that, he hosted a fruitful discussion that included pointed criticism of his own contributions to the outcomes of the new venture, which he accepted graciously.
His story reminded me of something I read about Pixar in Creativity, Inc. It struck me that the practice of daily stand up meetings of movie teams, called "Dailies," is predicated upon psychological safety:
"Dailies are a key part of Pixar culture, not just because of what they accomplish — constructive midstream feedback — but because of how they accomplish it. Participants have learned to check their egos at the door—they are about to show incomplete work to their Director and colleagues. This requires engagement at all levels, and it is our directors job to foster and create a safe place for that...
"Dailies are master classes in how to see and think more expansively, and their impact can be felt throughout the building.… It's an intimidating room to be in because the goal is to create the best animation possible… Sharing and analyzing the teams ongoing work is every morning is, by definition, a group effort—but it does not come naturally. People join us with a set of expectations about what they think is important. They want to please, impress, and show their worth. They really don't want to embarrass themselves by showing incomplete work or ill conceived ideas, and they don't want to say something dumb in front of the Director. The first step is to teach them that everyone at Pixar shows incomplete work, and everyone is free to make suggestions. When they realize this, the embarrassment goes away – and when the embarrassment goes away, people become more creative. By making the struggles to solve the problems safe to discuss, then everyone learns from—and inspires—one another. The whole activity become socially rewarding and productive. To participate fully each morning requires empathy, clarity, generosity, and the ability to listen. Dailies are designed to promote everyone's ability to be open to others, in the recognition that individual creativity is magnified by the people around you. The result: we see more clearly."
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