We’re hearing from many of you that creating an environment of psychological safety in your company is at the top of your list.
You envision a culture where people celebrate each other’s differences, where they trust each other to have difficult conversations without being attacked, and where they feel a sense of “we”.
And…it’s hard. You’re feeling overwhelmed.
The important thing about building culture is that you remain curious. Continue having conversations where you get a feel for what a great culture would look like for everyone.
Culture, like people, isn’t static.
It must grow and evolve as your team grows and evolves.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing some ideas with you from the research and researchers that we follow. We encourage you to spend some time reading the suggestions, discussing them with your team, and see if you can begin crafting something together.
Culture work may seem daunting. But we’ve seen over and over that:
“Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time
attending to fears and feelings,
or squander an unreasonable amount of time
trying to manage ineffective
and unproductive behavior.”
-Brené Brown
The teams that have created a culture where people feel they belong, are some of the most productive, motivated, and engaged, regardless of circumstance.
As you start to have conversations with your teams about how you work together, remember to sit beside them, and let them know you’re in it together.
If you’re struggling with what to say, below are some suggestions from Brené Brown’s book, Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
- What does support from me look like? What questions can I try to answer? Are there any stories you want to check out with me?
- I’m asking everyone to stay connected and lean into each other during this churn so we can really rumble with what’s going on.
- We will walk through this in a way that makes us feel proud. It will be hard, but we will do it together.
- Let’s each write down one thing we need from this group in order to feel okay sharing and asking questions, and one thing that will get in the way.
Think about these suggestions, and some of the others we’ve discussed. See what resonates with you and begin to have culture-building conversations with your team.
Next week, we’ll share some great suggestions from Susan David who discusses the correlation between emotional agility and psychological safety.
Reach out if we can be helpful.
If you’d like support
with the people stuff,
contact us today.