Some people find friends for life in their colleagues from their crappy jobs in retail or service. Others, find themselves completely unable to even glance at that workplace as they pass it by. A friend of mine, Jack* lost his job at a former workplace, and due to the nature of the work he did, he cannot look at any of the local branches of the store, out of fear that he may see the person who fired him again. The idea of seeing her makes him feel sick to his stomach, and even in a crowded shopping centre, surrounded by friends, he doesn’t feel safe.
Who doesn’t have that person from work that they clicked with? In an idealised world, the entire workplace, or at least, each department, should gel together and be able to work as a unit, instead of numerous smaller pieces of a puzzle. With each department, working as one, together in unison toward common goals, you’d assume that there is a semblance of safety.
This idea of psychological safety in the workplace was brought to light by Dr Amy Edmonson in 1999, where, after a study, a team’s success will largely boil down to its members “tacit beliefs about interpersonal interaction,” and whether they have “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”
In order for a company to make progress in its industry it is imperative that the workers feel psychologically safe. But, as the graphic above demonstrates, you will not make progress if you do not eke your way out of your comfort zone.
This means that one person’s mistakes do not reflect poorly on said individual, it does so upon the team. Group cohesion, cooperation and support means that risks that are undertaken are shared equally across the individuals and thus shortcomings, mistakes, failures, etc. can have blame equally dealt out. This means that individuals in a team are less afraid of being penalised as a consequence of their actions to the same extent as they would if the risk was only portioned off to one individual. By having the group take responsibility for the dealings of each other, sharing opinions, etc. they are able to advance together, fail together and bond as a team.
Not every success is obvious. One of the most catastrophic failings for a team could be the one that inspires a great innovation, or allows the team to finally connect as a group of friends, equals, soldiers in a war against the competition. And, no man gets left behind.
Based in London, U.K., and founded in 2016 by Arvind Mishra, The Agile Works (www.TheAgileWorks.com), is an up-and-coming recruitment and Agile consulting company. Arvind is a Certified SAFe SPC and regularly delivers both private and public SAFe certification workshops.
He is a design thinking expert, Sr. enterprise, portfolio Agile Coach with over a decade of experience working as an Agile coach in diverse industries such as banking, pharma, retail, auto, oil, gas, consulting and government.
The Agile Works; a small team of three strive to help shape the leadership's mind-set and values in readiness for their business transformation journey challenges. With Arvind at the helm, we strive to provide you with the agility tools to make your company that can thrive, and not just survive.
To book a consultation, or for any enquiries, you can contact Arvind via the following email address: arvind@theagileworks.com
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