Risky Business
“A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation: “As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It’s not as wide as you think.”
Joseph Campbell
The 2015 Google research on teams highlighted that psychological safety is a key ingredient in building outstanding teams. In our work with leadership and executive teams, we support teams to build that safety through experiential exercises which build a deeper level of conversation.
In these conversations, we support teams to articulate their experiences and challenges in the daily execution of their work and to offer both requests and offers to each other which will facilitate strong relationships.
We recently worked with a newly forming team which included a legacy core group of members alongside newly joined members. The team took risks and worked with courage to express their fears and hopes for what they would be able to achieve together. Members articulated initial experiences, some of which had not been helpful; this was listened to and absorbed. Together the team then created their commitments to how they wanted to work together moving forward to create an inclusive and focused team.
It is our experience that teams who are able to take the risk to offer compassionate feedback to each other and to also receive it with openness and curiosity build a deeper level of trust and psychological safety. This in turn drives a positive experience and strong performance.
The TOWARD Team