In my last post, I discussed what science says about how we change. We learned that no matter how strong our motivation to change, our fear of failure will rise to exceed that motivating force. This is our mind’s way to maintain equilibrium — and prevent change. In short, high perceived risk impedes change and creativity.
So what does the scientific literature say we can do? The resounding answer is to create psychological safety for the person attempting to change. Once safety needs are met, the individual can think creatively without worrying about failure. (Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is built on this.)
While the adage “high-risk high reward” may work in some systems, it doesn’t work when applied to people — this extends to employees, teams, and companies.
In order for a person, team, or organization to change, it’s the CEO or manager’s job to create a culture of safety for team members. Once a safe environment is established, learning anxiety is diminished, and change and creativity can flourish.
Let’s discuss a real-life example of a place that promotes psychological safety and therefore creativity and learning: the research laboratory. In a well-run lab, failure is expected. When a research team is attempting to discover new truths, the members must design and run experiments, most of which will fail.
The lab operates off this premise for individual experiments: failure is expected. And so researchers don’t feel the need to avoid it. Failed experiments are valuable since they teach you where not to look so that you can focus future efforts on more promising areas. These “failed” results can also uncover new ways of looking at things that were not considered before.
In a constructive lab, researchers don’t feel any sense of ego or status loss when an experiment doesn’t turn back positive. Instead, they collaborate with other team members to learn from their mutual findings to improve future behavior. When this process is repeated, eventually the researchers may find a groundbreaking result.
So how can we apply this concept of safety to startups and management?
At the company level, try to ensure you have enough financial runway to run sufficient tests. That way, when you run the tests, you’re staying objective instead of trying to force a bad solution to work since you’re out of time or money. Get buy-in from stakeholders. If your board of directors agrees with the experiments you’re running and why, then if any of them fail, you’re all on the same page that you’re (hopefully) getting closer to the right answer.
At the management level, lead by example. Be transparent with your mistakes, failures, and what you learned from them. Create systems to manage risk and debrief poor outcomes to prevent repeat incidents. Focus on the input, not the output: that is, the approach and experimental design, not the result. Never fire an employee as a scapegoat because of a poor outcome. This is the surest way to create psychological fear.
Be consistent. Promote good behavior. Communicate clearly and often with poor performers on why they are not succeeding. It should not be a surprise to that employee if they are let go. If you have done a good job of communicating what it takes to succeed in your organization, your employees should not be surprised when a team member is let go either. Reinforce their knowledge by explaining clearly to your remaining employees why that employee was let go. Again, be consistent, clear, and authentic. The easiest way for an employee to lack psychological safety is if they think they could be fired for a single mistake. They will then be motivated by fear and self-preservation instead of acting in the best interest of your company.
Pay enough compensation so your employees don’t have to worry about money. If you live in an expensive area like Silicon Valley, understand that if you underpay your employees, they may be worrying more about paying the bills than on solving your company’s biggest problems.
Proactively ask for constructive feedback. How you ask is critical. If you ask in a defensive manner, you’ll get elusive responses. Just as critical is how you respond. If you respond by deflecting blame, you won’t get honest answers in the future. Your employees are your best source of feedback on how to improve your organization. They’ll be able to see your blind spots. How you react to their constructive criticisms will determine whether they believe sharing feedback with you will help them or hurt them — and thereby impact all future feedback behavior.
Show you care about your employees. If you honestly and authentically care about your employees, their family, and their lives, they will trust you more. While it’s challenging to balance the employer/employee relationship with the notion of “family”, it’s become increasingly important in today’s competitive environment to care about your people. If you have built a strong team, your weakest employees are getting recruiter and hiring manager emails at least once a month. Your best employees are getting them more than once a week. Differentiate yourself and your company by showing them you care.
At a personal level, you can build up psychological safety in a number of ways. Mindfulness research has shown the power of meditation in reducing stress, improving concentration, self-awareness, and much more. Exercise to improve your mental health and mood. Get a massage. Learn about the developing field of positive psychology. Hang out with friends.
Once you’re able to build an environment of psychological safety for your company, employees, and yourself, you’ll have planted the seeds for explosive creative growth. Give it a try and you may soon realize that low psychological risk will return outsized high rewards for you and your organization.
Photo by Anton Repponen on Unsplash
