Don’t Act That Way!

Imagine you are a fly on the wall in a conference room where a team is meeting attempting to solve a new and complex matter. It appears that everyone is afraid to talk and make a mistake, that they will appear weak, uninformed and maybe even stupid, and nobody wants to appear stupid.

Spiker Insights

You know that groups perform best when mistakes are treated with curiosity and shared responsibility for the outcomes. Psychological safety is the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or even mistakes. To solve problems today, we all must be more curious, inquiring, experimental and nurturing. Management needs to stop being hierarchical, directive, controlling and even indifferent to their teams and needs to be a part of the team.

When you fail to foster a high-quality interaction between all parties, we all lose out on the benefit of discourse between people who see things differently. The result is a lack of deep understanding, fewer creative options, diminished commitment to act, increased anxiety and resistance, and most importantly reduced morale and wellbeing.

Business leaders need to consider not only how they will act, but more importantly, how they will not act. If leaders focus on enhancing the quality of interaction of their teams, business performance and wellbeing will follow.