Team Performance (3/3)

TRUST AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY – Part 3.

Whether team members feel psychologically safe has a strong impact on the team’s performance, it forms the basis for innovation, motivation, commitment, and creativity.

• Part 1: Trust
• Part 2: Psychological Safety
• Part 3: Team Performance

Part 3: Team Performance

Amy Edmondson explains in her book “The Fearless Organization” the influence of psychological safety in combination with responsibility and motivation and what output can be expected accordingly.

On a spectrum – from little tension to too much tension in a team – the performance claim and the necessary level of trust can be well demonstrated. With little or no tension in the team, conflicts are avoided or impulsive ad-hoc conflicts that may have fermented under the surface for a long time. In this apathy and comfort zone, the team performs poorly and has a low level of conflict. With a high level of trust, tensions can be used to achieve better results. Creative tension – for example, juxtaposing different perspectives – can lead to new insights. In a safe environment, mistakes are searched for the causes instead of culprits to learn from them. In teams with high tensions and little trust, unproductive conflicts, the inability to act or even loss of trust occur. Projects can be maneuvered into a situation from which one can no longer get out, up to the failure of the project or individual actions. In this fear zone, team performance decreases and the cost of problems increases. Only trust allows top performance, because only here can a high-performance standard be guaranteed while at the same time sustainability.

Would you like to assess yourself and your team in this spectrum? Then answer the following questions to get started.

Teams with high psychological certainty have a climate in which different perspectives are valued. Team members interact with each other in an inclusive, trusting, and respectful atmosphere where no one is afraid to admit failure. Team members talk openly about feelings and needs, building strong personal relationships with each other. The atmosphere is characterized by mutual feedback and appreciation for actions, progress and/or results. There are clear procedures and rituals for dealing with conflicts in the team and clear behavioral expectations among each other. This involves negotiating which values are important to the team and how this is reflected in behaviors, i.e. a joint development of a team culture and identity.

Psychological safety is felt by every individual in everyday life if they do not have to fear rejection, ignorance, or degradation when they ask a question, share an idea, express a concern, or make a mistake. In team meetings, the speaking time does not depend on the status, but on the perspective that is brought in and thus becomes clear how differences in the team are valued. The team shows understanding for each other, even if it is possible to argue the matter.

The responsibility for creating psychological safety lies with each individual in the team. In addition to many individual trusting relationships in the team, this also includes inclusion and sensitivity in their various forms. Sensitivity to oneself, others and context has a positive effect on the dynamics of social interactions and is an integrative aspect of team membership. The emotional perception and regulation of oneself and in interpersonal relationships is called emotional intelligence.

… is the ability to sense one’s own emotions and understand their origins. The better we understand the underlying causes of our emotions, the better we can respond and articulate our needs. It is about the awareness and acceptance of one’s own emotions in order to articulate and regulate them. This supports authenticity when people feel encouraged to be themselves and express themselves at work. Self-compassion and self-esteem are supportive attitudes for self-sensitivity.

What you can do:

… is the ability to understand, be aware of, and vicariously experience each other’s feelings, thoughts, and experiences (either past or present) without being fully communicated in an objectively explicit way. In addition, recognize the effects of one’s own actions on others (e.g. if a colleague needs to concentrate, is aware that a loud discussion in the same room can interfere and therefore moves to another room). Social sensitivity refers to others and supports belonging when individuals feel connected to others at work. Acceptance includes employee value, inclusion and diversity.

What you can do:

… (e.g. in relation to the situation or organization) is the ability to understand not only the self and team level, but also the context in which the situation occurs, e.g. not having a critical conversation in the open-plan office or seeing similar patterns in the group also in the organization.

What you can do: