According to Felps and Edmondson, how do you create safety?
Dialing in to small, subtle moments and delivering targeted signals at key points.
Steps to create safety…
- Overcommunicate your listening
- Spotlight your fallibility early on - especially if you’re a leader
- Embrace the messenger
- Preview future connections
- Overdo thank-yous
- Be painstaking in the hiring process
- Eliminate bad apples
- Create collision-rich spaces
- Make sure everyone has a voice
- Pick up trash
- Capitalize on threshold moments
- Avoid giving sandwich feedback
- Embrace fun
Overcommunicate your listening
- Listen actively
- Avoid interruptions - smoothness of turn taking is a powerful indicator of cohesive group performance
Embrace the messenger
It’s important not simply to tolerate the difficult news but to embrace it
Be painstaking in the hiring process
Deciding who’s in and who’s out is the most powerful signal any group sends.
Pick up trash
Muscular humility — a mindset of seeking simple ways to serve the group
Avoid giving sandwich feedback
Separate positive and negative feedback.
How to give negative feedback
Through dialogue
1. Ask if they want feedback
2. Learning-focused two-way conversation about the needed growth
How to give positive feedback
Ultra clear bursts of recognition and praise.
(Leaders should share a capacity for radiating delight when they spot behavior worth praising.
Embrace fun
Laughter is the most fundamental sign of safety and connection
